No its not just the icing on the cake, most of the time it is the cake.

If I was a full time landlord, then I would be looking strictly for cashflow and would consider any appreciation as icing on the cake.

I know I am completely in the minority on this one.But I for one do not think  ( appreciation is icing on the cake) I think  a prudent investor should be looking at properties that have a chance to rise in value fairly significantly over time as with mortgage pay down and appreciation that is were the bigger dollars are made.And Kyle the Reason I say this is over the course of owning these homes 10 to 20 years.. your going to need to do a full rehab gut job most likely to sell them... and that is to just sell them for what you paid for them.. now I know you will be putting money aside for capex however experience has dictated to me its never enough.. so with sale commission etc. if you have no real upward movement in your values and you do need to cash out.. you may take a loss of actual principal to then be off set by cash flow.. but it will lower your return over time.And if you buy in an area that has upward movement and can realistically be sold to a homeowner you have a very great chance of selling your home and recapturing this end of life cycle major rehab and potentially greater equity in the appreciation over time.The only way lower end properties that have static value can rise in value if rents rise appreciably over time.. and since many of these areas are hud reliant that involves our government increasing the benefits ...

On a 30 yr mortgage you pay down roughly 2-3% over the first few years plus, the icing on the cake, appreciation is on average 3-4%.

Equity appreciation I aim for but is icing on the cake.

Sorry if I sound all crunchy and salty hahaha, I've just had to explain this a million times on this site because the whole 1% thing is the metric most BiggerPockets members are using even though there are at least 10 other ways to analyze and investment property.When it comes down to it, here in California cash-flow is merely the icing on the cake.

It is also the day after my son's B-day, so bolting out of the festivities immediately following cake would not be "Dad of the Year" behaviour.   

You cannot have your cake and eat it too. 

Especially when you bring appreciation into the mix, as that's the true cake.

We can't have our cake and eat it to - that is, we can't take 0 risk and still expect 15% annualized returns when T-bills are paying 0.55% on 1-year bonds.