I do them in the 9 Bay Area counties, LA county, San Diego county, but obviously 3000 is unrealistic so the national lenders generally don't do them at all if they are fielding inquiries from all 3000+ counties.Down payment 2nd mortgages and/or grants are not "free money."

My question is, am I being unrealistic in my time frame?

We repeatedly find clients with unrealistic earning expectations or less-than-reputable motives.

There is also the idea that a fee that is applied each day become unrealistic for the tenant to catch up.

You will find hype, unrealistic expectations, and half-cooked advice (sure, like mine).The BP books are so so, not great.

Ask about their properties/expectations/what they're seeing in the market; it could be that your/your client's expectations are just unrealistic in that market. 

My question is whether people would consider building your own rental property a better or at least a viable strategy as opposed to trying to talk unrealistic California owners down in price.  

Is this unrealistic, just to get me on board with her?

Analyzing your target market has a number of benefits, I'll list a few: Benefits of conducting a market analysis first: You won't waste your time or money prospecting in the wrong areasYou'll have a better idea of what an actual "good deal" looks likeNo more worrying about not being able to find a buyerYou'll be able to weed out unrealistic sellers quicklyYou'll develop an expertise in a specific area over timeLearn your market, you'll get off to a better start.

The changes in underwriting criteria has made it much more difficult to buy a house and the people who buy a house to live in are lower in number, but can actually afford the homes that they buy.While it might be true that we are near a top and might have a correction on the horizon, it's unrealistic to say the correction will resemble anything close to a collapse.