At this point, with the amount of stuff they had in the house and considering they had nowhere lined up to go and no transportation, I felt it was prudent to allow a couple more weeks so I gave them till the end of June.

Then I went a bit overboard thinking it would be pretty awesome to transport that house using balloons.

I'd be crazy to think that new models wouldn't arise, but I certainly don't know what those models are (just like I couldn't predict new methods of communication (the Internet), new methods of shared transport (Uber) or new methods of short-stay housing (AirBnB)). 

Just to add to this,  I think it depends on your area,  if you live in a larger city with a lot of jobs/transportation then as others mentioned the cash flow may not be as great.  

If you have no regular place of work but ordinarily work in the metropolitan area where you live, you can deduct daily transportation costs between home and a temporary work site outside that metropolitan area.

So, location, cost of doing business, utility cost, transportation cost, labor cost and the ability to attract qualified employees will be the critical factors.

Both options, look for single-family with good rent potential (proximity to jobs and transportation, low crime, $1700/month zillow rent estimate) and low costs (convert to electric utilities, repair roof and structure).

I saw this in my market prior to the crash, people overpaying for rentals because of the booming market...however that was not a cause of the crash it was merely a symptom of the conditions that caused the crash - unregulated(forgive me capitalists ;) ) easy money(simplified, but accurate) far and away #1 was the cause and on a much, much smaller scale local overspecualtion(your point here, but really much more on wall street than rental owners)...people are overpaying right now that has happened before...but what we do not have is the incredible number of bad loans and unqualified buyers we had that precipitated the crash.

It's all relative.If a household is pulling in 400k/yr and their mortgage is 38% of their income... other cost of living items like food, clothing, transportation are still a small(er) percentage of their income.

"A" class properties are typically 10 years old or less, in great neighborhoods, in great condition, and have lots of amenities like pool, playgrounds, access to public transportation, etc.