Right now, I find myself bouncing between analyzing short-term rentals, then long-term rentals, and then creating financial projections, only to come face-to-face with reality (how accurate are my projections, and are my expenses underestimated or overestimated?).

I talked to 6 people this week who went out of state for more cash flow and are dealing with negative cash flow now (properties looked good on paper but maintenance, repairs, capex, tenant and PM issues have caused significant losses for them in reality).

The reality is, you won't know this for sure until you can get professionals up there to inspect.

The reality is that if you analyze an Investment for it's Long Term ROI, you won't be using simple formulas based on Cash Flow Now.Those that are arguing Cash Flow versus Appreciation need to add at LEAST the Mortgage Balance Reduction and the Tax Savings.The problem is Education, therefore, there will always be a discussion which pits Cash Flow versus Appreciation when the real conversation should be:Given the over all 10 year holding period, what would be the overall return, taken into account:1) Cash Flow2) Appreciation3) Mortgage Balance Reduction and4) Tax Savings5) Repairs and Renovations6) Expense and Revenue increasesetc.A typical Chart in my spreadsheet looks like this:The BIG GREEN Number is an Internal Rate of Return and it shows that, according to my CONSERVATIVE Assumptions that has been built into this spreadsheet, it will give me a 15.34% IRR over 10 years.What I see from other postings is no mention of the overall Return.

So in reality you've got 3-4 months after contracting to sell your property to get a contract on a new one if you want to play it the safest. 

So reality of landscape is the vast majority of self-managing persons are flying without a parachute already.

@Joseph Bui why are you portraying to share resources, when in reality you are soliciting these investors to sell them something?

In reality what skills and resources are most investors starting with?

In reality, it's only 1.5%. 

That is going to be a hard-hitting reality I am betting, just how far it does not go, given situation and especially looking at staying in the high price market.