You could play the appreciation game but that's speculative, albeit a bit more likely in california, still speculation. 

Hi @Michael Conway,Assuming no overlays are at play, the rent can be counted right away.Rental income from the property you are purchasing can also be counted, even if it is vacant. 

Several cats scurry into the basement when you walk through the backyard.I'm sure I can rent the subject house out and cover expenses to play the long game and have a great asset years from now. 

But I'm trying to play the odds here.

Yep, some smart tenant will seize the opportunity to play the litigation lottery and file.

It would be almost as if I was managing an AirBnb for her with the intent to lease... a step below a rent to own structure.I know this all sounds like crap to you big fish out there, but I am starting small and using any avenue I can to get my pieces out of Start and play the game!

I think if you are going to play the buy and hold game through a down turn, a MF investment is likely to fare better when the economy rebounds than SF, but largely just due to the economies of scale with MF.

One thing I wanted to do is get a group of investors together to play the game Robert mentions several times about cash flow and the rat race.

Landlords play the long game.  

Take some time (not a lot in the grand scheme of things) and pay off the collections, dispute the items that you can and play the game.Stephanie