All recent increases and near-term future increases are just gambling.

Additional details on the Umbrella policy and how to manage contractor work and ensure being an additionally insured party to the GC policy were great.I intend to create one CA LLC (without moving properties to another LLC after renovation for renting), get a good umbrella coverage policy, and ensure renovation and rental guidelines (GC insurance, Fair Housing Act, etc.).

Having said that, before you dismiss a sponsor for violating this guideline, take some steps to ensure you are communicating with the right person, and that communication is actually established.

The strategy that they taught me (Whole Sale) had no real guide lines and I found that my marketing money was going to run out too fast.

However, as I said an investor could strike an honest deal anticipating that the property will sell for more than the taxes owed and be willing to gamble on that.

The irony of the 1% "rule" is that those who could even use it effectively don't need it, ie if you need to spend more than 30 seconds thinking about whether it fits the guidelines you're probably not educated enough in RE to use it anyway. 

Make sure you're complying with TCPA guidelines before cold calling!

Predicting appreciation seems like a big gamble to me.

Renting and eating the loss is a gamble on future rent increases, but the market and high costs might not make it worth the stress.

All this fancy mumbo fha guideline gumbo means is that your projected market rents assuming all units, if it were rented Times 75% need to be greater than what your monthly payment is  (PITIA = principal/interest/taxes/insurance/assessments monthly), other wise FHA will not lend at that loan amount so common solutions to this when rents are too low in your local market are to put more money down payment which defeats the whole purpose of low 3.5% down FHA doesnt it?