So, aside from maybe diversification, what have you accomplished?

West Texas currently has the largest oil find, the Mammoth Oil Find, in Texas State History that is expected to last for 10-15 years.Counteracting the oil growth has been a diversification of the local economy, focused on healthcare, education, increased manufacturing, and increased hiring by the government around the metro area.

Diversification is important too, and last year Houston's job growth was bad but the stats hadn't caught up.

An example is a new offering I looked at recently in your neck of the woods buying an apartment with well over half the return coming in the form of appreciation in 5 years.To each his own, of course, and many like the diversification you can achieve with multiple $5k investments in various deals.

Diversification: Similar to the way a mutual fund behaves, a mobile home park fund diversifies the investment across a group of parks instead of a single park. 

Hello All,After making a few investments in East Bay last year and managing them personally this year, I am now ready to make some more investments, preferably outside of the Bay Area for diversification purposes (Japan earthquake is fresh in my mind too).

Diversification does not work well as it tends to spread you too thin.

Agreed on diversification.

I'd compare paying cash for the first ones and refinancing vs simply allocated a portion of your 1031 proceeds on each property as new loans.The strategy you're circling around is a sound one - it's all about concentrating debt and equity in separate locations in a diversification exchange. 

thanks Dean, it sounds to me that the only way to make a market with stagnation of rent and prices work is to enter the market for diversification from growth and no cashflow market.