If you also factor in 5% appreciation on a $350k asset (this is not guaranteed), that’s another +$55,000 equity gain.So by renting out rooms in your house you could gain $135,000 in equity in 3 years, not counting tax benefits, barring any major downshifts in the market.

What concerns me most it that it seems there's no way around having a W2 job if I want to continue investing...Part of the attraction and goal, which I'm sure for a lot of folks on BP, had been to establish enough passive income to focus solely on real estate investing and retire/downshift/etc.Now if you have all this equity and cash reserves, what is the roadmap then?

If and when it downshifts which is in who knows how many years then some agents go to property management to try and skimp by.I don't do property management.

Are you priced accordingly with the down-shifting market or are you trying to capture pricing from 2-3 months ago?

@Mary Joe   To use the mention thingy, hold down "Shift" on the keyboard, then press the "@" key, and then "?"

From my perspective, I don’t see a huge downshift in places like Miami and Tampa because we are driven by new jobs.

It gets painful to see deal after deal go to someone else, but I wouldn't want to be owning the assets they bought, at the price they bought, if the market downshifts significantly.

.- Massive downshift in population.

Great point, Bonnie, and I didn't necessarily mean that fall in and of itself is a great time for rentals, but that end of 2016/beginning of 2017 will see a downshift in the market.

Down shifting at your day job while your creating something on the other side of the fence will derail your success on the other side.