These numbers are for illustration purposes only.

As an illustrative example, would you be willing to go down in CoC yield from 15% to 10% for the potential for appreciation, all other things being equal (I know that they never are). 

If you don't have time to read the whole article, here's the meat of what he has to say on investing: "I tell these tales to illustrate certain fundamentals of investing:You don't need to be an expert in order to achieve satisfactory investment returns.

Jake, I have your answer, and that scenario is a really good point and way to illustrate it.The best way to see it all to know if it is legal or not is focus on attachment to value.

You will hear:4 Rules of thumb and how to apply them – or notA case study illustrating these rulesWhen the 50% rule may not be aggressive enoughWhat is usually left out of the MLS listingWhere to get the APOD spreadsheet for free that the CCIM’s useFree online screening resources for rental rates, environmental hazards, and moreThese are not substitutes for in depth analysis, but will help you quickly weed out the properties that won’t work for you, so you can focus on those that will.

From my short time at biggerpockets I can say that there are some experienced and savvy business people and investors around who require you to illustrate your plan from a - b and have a backup plan from b - c before they would consider someone as a partner.

The biggest challenge I have is understanding how to fund each purchase, is there a simple way to illustrate that?

Cardone is good for illustrating possibilities.

To illustrate this point, I know of some investors in SoCal that were profitably flipping 2007-2012, during a declining RE market.

That's totally hypothetical, but it was meant to serve as an extreme illustration...