He's not an investor...he's a speculator...and a bad one.  

This is pure speculation and would likely only apply to apartment prices.

Buying a property in hopes that it will go up in value is speculating.

That led to huge speculation and we know how that ended.

I'm speculating when I say this, but this area will more then likely be out of my price point real soon.  

If you are trying to speculate and hope for market growth & appreciation (when the deal doesn't work otherwise) then you might be in trouble. 

Other examples would be private lending for down payments, borrowing from family (not possible for me), doing a owner-occupied investment and saving the rent I would normally have paid for a year and then reinvest (this is my plan as of yet, but it seems that it would take a long time before I accomplished my goals), using a credit card to fund deals (which I will not do), partnering (very skeptical of some others motives since I am new), selling after a year or two (speculating appreciation of course, which is bad news) and various not so friendly ideas.Can anyone shed some light to what ways that I can roll into the next property fast so I can start the snowball effect in the first year?

That government will never let their speculators default, which means that real estate development basically has become a legal form of embezzlement for the well-connected.

(Not speculation) I did my research and asked the county and local builders at their projections of building, roads, markets etc.My questions is "What is the best way to approach the owners of these homes?"

prop. tax, insurance, prop. mgmt,  maintena. and vacancy. appreciation is a speculative number bc none of us have a crystal ball. to answer your question how can you tell if this is a good investment.