Aside from constant threats to drastically alter the property tax structure, existing and expanding rent control, anti-landlord regulatory environment, anti-landlord/investor public sentiment, litigious tendencies, liberal judges, tents popping up everywhere, cardboard sign carrying panhandlers at virtually every roadway intersection, trash on roads pretty much everywhere you look, increasing crime, high cost to get pretty much anything done, and not the greatest economics (speaking from an investment point of view such as price-to-rent ratio, etc), probably my biggest reason is that I like to invest in places where people are moving TO, and avoid places where people are moving FROM. 

I was a broker when I did the deals I posted.I doubt there would be much on a creative side that we didn't do, but creative doesn't mean anything goes, you still have to operate within legal and regulatory issues.

It also up there in highest income taxes, sales taxes, and regulatory climate.

Escrow accounts get scrutinized by regulatory officials at mortgage servicers often.

I completely agree with Rich that things are likely to get worse in the short term in many markets...with alt-a and option arm loans coming due in higher volume than at any point in history, there is sure to be greater foreclosure supply over the next 6-12 months.For the reasons Bill mentioned, I don't think it will have an impact on the banks any more so than it's had the past couple years, with the exception that banks may hold off the foreclosure process in many cases to keep their reserve levels within regulatory requirements (what they're currently doing with commercial property on the books).As for whether this is a bad time to flip properties, I think that's going to be market dependent.

Cities that make it hard to build and have a lot of regulatory hurdles (e.g.

Obama adviser and regulatory “czar” Cass Sunstein has even written a book titled “The second Bill of Rights: FDR's unfinished Revolution and why we need it more than ever.”

Due to California's highly regulatory environment building new homes is very difficult.

(Not to the people who were hurt of course; but to the federal regulatory agency.)

The way the industry is structured from my experience the electrician often 'may' oversee the project, but typically you engage with a 'turnkey' solar type company to do all of the following:front end financial analysisget through the regulatory process and most utilities require filing what's called an 'interconnection agreement'bring in an engineer like me to draft plans, as requiredthen once the interconnection has been approved, they shop the install to an electricianoften in house resources from that solar company are used to actually mount panels and do most of the LV wiring, and they will leave the 120/240 etc wiring to the electricianGranted, the above process unfortunately has a lot of 'soft costs' built in that drive up the cost of these types of projects for a homeowner, but they still do pencil out in some cases.