I have recently paid off my loans for my rental properties and I'm starting to accumulate cash (I took it out of the S&P 500 ETF when it was at 3300, now at 2300, predicting this massive stock drop would happen **pats self on back**).

@Bob Malecki, @Dave Van Horn, any predictions? 

The one predictable thing about Real Estate is that it is a cycle.  

If values continue to increase as they are predicted to you might not be able to save fast enough.

I know it is possible to use predicted rental value as income to qualify so I was wondering if anyone on here had experience doing this with an FHA loan.

I would highly recommend looking into new construction for a very predictable first investment over an older rehabbed property to start.Here are some more resources for you to review to see what other investor's experiences have been. 

Here are the latest housing market predictions for 2021 & 2022.

No worries...yes, it seems like a lot of investors starting out usually have around the $50k mark to get going...its a solid amount of capital to start with if you are looking at residential MF properties.Appreciation is market specific as a first filter, zip specific as a second filter, neighborhood specific to base decisions on, and block or street specific to actually get accurate.Appreciation is usually predictable, even though most folks consider it "icing on the cake"...it is important to consider.

@David Ounanian I have networked with a few others that own property on The Hill and they have seen an absolute explosion of interest since covid started; not what I would have predicted but they are making a killing as well.

@Victor Kyi - In my opinion the reduction of risk investment wise comes in the quality of the asset (which in new construction means it will be in a good shape for a little while) and second in your ability to predict the cash flow based on what it would currently go for.