I built my entire REI "empire" in 2008/2009 after having lost an "empire" in new home MFH development.

@Joseph Fenner what step are you on in building your empire?

Move into other more desirable markets now too: Cali, Florida, Carolinas, and now you have the stability, the structure, the experience, and the capital to never stop building your air BNB empire.

Nothing very high crime in OC anymore, but parts of south LA, Compton, Watts etc are still fairly high crime but are seeing real growth and improvement that might make it worthwhile, as is of course city of San Bernardino and a number of other areas in the Inland Empire do offer this sort of thing.

Which tends to lean me toward an STR to bring in more cash-flow.Need to get out of the coporate rat race we're in now and build and empire!

Surviving world wars, countless currencies and empires as a store of wealth.... 

This is because we have spent a lot of years slogging through nothing and several major value add live and flips and a fix and flip during GFC to get to place where we own the house and have a bit of IRA and enough to start building an empire (evil laugh).   

Make sure that you don't buy too much of a house - that can come later after you build your rental empire.

I want to start building a empire to pass down to my kids and family.

I want to start building a empire to pass down to my kids and family.