By definition these are unknown and uncontrollable.

A long time ago, in a smoked filled card room off a dark alley on a back street in Vegas, a wise man said to me, "If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is at the table, you should stop gambling and go look in the mirror."

That is what you're gambling.

Again, by the water would be nice to keep my kids busy and entertained.What I can trade you for: a week into a similar size mountain cabin in the CO mountains, by Pikes Peak, 2 hrs from Denver, extremely private, minutes close to gambling town, fishing, hunting, hiking or other mountain type attractions.

Jason,Not being a LV Native, I wanted to know who Moe isMoe Greene was a renowned Jewish mobster and former executioner for Murder Incorporated, credited with the development of Las Vegas into a gambling and Actually, that is a good point, how do you check out who your neighbors are when selecting a property ?

If I compare it to Australia, where I get app. 4-5% rental return and hope to get 10% cap gain (maybe, if things go downhill and I'm very, very lucky)- ill take the 15% in the bank any day - not relying on capital gain means, for me, freedom from a lot of the economic speculating (gambling) and uncertainty.

You may dispute my gambling analogy, but owning rental property is absolutely gambling.

The numbers usually don't make a lot of sense, and "investing" with the primary goal of getting appreciation is speculative at best, and would be considered gambling by some.Don't get to hung up on the 2% rule.

It's a bit of a gamble, though - both because your predictions have to be very close to reality, and because you never know what the market will do by the time you try to re-lease/sell.

If you take that gamble you'll lose.