If I compare it to Australia, where I get app. 4-5% rental return and hope to get 10% cap gain (maybe, if things go downhill and I'm very, very lucky)- ill take the 15% in the bank any day - not relying on capital gain means, for me, freedom from a lot of the economic speculating (gambling) and uncertainty.

You may dispute my gambling analogy, but owning rental property is absolutely gambling.

(Hint: I've done direct mail before, but it was always targeted, now I'm looking to spam everyone and look for trends).If you're an expert at this kind of thing, I'd really like to talk to you.

The numbers usually don't make a lot of sense, and "investing" with the primary goal of getting appreciation is speculative at best, and would be considered gambling by some.Don't get to hung up on the 2% rule.

I'm researching online.We started from a high level view and are narrowing down the areas that fit our situation and that we are interested in.I made my own "please spam me" post a few days ago.

I mean, it doesn't hurt but I've mostly spam filtered all those types of lists I found my way onto.

It's a bit of a gamble, though - both because your predictions have to be very close to reality, and because you never know what the market will do by the time you try to re-lease/sell.

If you take that gamble you'll lose.

But that's always the gamble.

Zinny is now in my spam folder.