To use some sports parlance to perhaps illustrate the point, if it were a boxing match, the scorecard would read:  10 - 4 in favor of Irvington (i.e. not even close).If you look at some of the listings from the online sources for the Highlands neighborhood you reference, you would/could consistently find single-family homes which have sold below $20,000.

I went off on a tangent of my goals, but I felt it best to illustrate where I came from to where I want to go and because of these podcasts that I listen to almost daily, I feel ecstatic about getting there even though I feel alone in this in my home.

The numbers we used are typical for Single Family projects we've been involved w/ on Chicago's southside & we used them to illustrate the art of the possible.  

Paying UDFI on the leveraged portion of the investment might reduce the return from 15% to 12%.While not as good as 15%, a net after tax return of 12% is still better than 8%.Please realize that these percentages are purely made up to illustrate a concept, not the magnitude of the return differences. 

(a) The provisions of the first sentence of section 1033(b) may be illustrated by the following example:Example:A's vessel which has an adjusted basis of $100,000 is destroyed in 1950 and A receives in 1951 insurance in the amount of $200,000.

The show gives a 'potential' profit but never actually gives a bottom line net number, which many times I look and say they really didn't make any money.I think as illustrated above in the watercooler conversations.

To further illustrate the point and how I'd advise managing it, let's look at another common mistake I hear all the time here on BP.

I would have thrown up the white flag of surrender years ago without more of a goal than making money.That said, like @James Wise has pointed out so illustratively twice, I no longer 'rescue' single mom's from the half-way house.  

As he so beautifully illustrated, the low cap rate in areas like San Diego go a very long way in helping to force appreciation.I saw another poster above comment something along the lines of "Why would you put $420K down for $9,600/year?" 

I have about 14 years before I am forced to make withdraws.For my illustration here I would assume to purchase 4 single family homes ~$100k each.