Its educated gambling..... and you may hit a grand slam...or you may get punched in the nuts...... its personal decision on your risk tolerance.Sometimes that huge leap of faith and "screw it, I'm going for it" can reap huge rewards....and sometimes it doesn't.For every "I bought it sight unseen and its doing great", I would easily bet there are dozens that have been totally screwed...some of them don't even know it yet.

I was buying court house steps in fort Meyers  new or near new homes for 30 to 40k cash at the steps in 093. my well documented clients in PHX AZ losing 4 plexs they paid 350k for in 05 and having them go vacant and they let them go to foreclosure thereby ruining their credit and losing whatever cash they had in them.. 2010 they were selling for 100k or less and still vacant.so on and so forth.As long as credit does not freeze the values have been reset .. those that were lucky or smart enough or came of age to be investors and bought in the trough historic low price points historic low interest  many paid cash as financing was still tough.. so as long as they don't drink the cool aid and refi out and leverage up you have the makings of a very strong asset base.. plus all the foreigners who paid cash there were literally hundreds of thousands of homes paid for in cash by Off shore folks.. then add in the half a million or more that were bought by hedge funds.. 

Are there any offshore angles:Is there potential for overseas sales or operations?

. :)ya we sure hate that gambling for appreciation.. but some folks have to live with it.. good job.

Get very familiar with the eviction process in your market and follow things to the letter and quickly.Make sure to vet tenants thoroughly and pick wisely (and even then it is a gamble). 

Might as well rent unless you want to gamble on appreciation.

You a gambling man?

Banking on appreciation is gambling.

Some folks are willing to take the risk in the gamble for appreciation, especially here in CA, they are typically purchasing when the market is down, not high as it is now.

The way to make it less annoying is to gamble (like a dollar) with your family for which property the wholesaler wants before opening the mail.