With what sounds to be little equity in your home and little cash reserve, you are one layoff away from serious issues and that would be a much bigger concern to me vs. how to fund a real estate investment.

Another techie office job (and another lay off) later, I decided to become an arms dealer, obtained my FFL/SOT, and also became a licensed firearms trainer.

Additionally, could keep an eye for local company layoffs, etc - there may be persons there that would be needing to find a new place.

Rising vacancies in office and retail is largely due to a lack of consumer spending, lay-offs and business downsizing.

According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds and created 7 private sector jobs and saved 7 workers from layoffs.

Most service businesses are dead as well, so common to see layoffs during this period as well with service businesses.Rents are way down from a few years ago and problem tenants are way up.The quality of credit is almost non-existent as we have little high paying jobs so most tenants here live paycheck to paycheck or are recovering from some financial problem.How long this pattern will last here is anybodies guess.

Recently in our area, reality seems to have finally sunk in.The economic realities have begun to cause rental owners to really react and aggressively cut prices on their units.No new jobs, layoffs, less income, people leaving the area.Both SFR and multi-family are affected and those with no mortgage or lower runtime cost structures have more flexibility with their pricing and are able to find tenants, though no where near the quality of yesteryear.Previous to this year, rents had remained fairly stable maybe down 5-10% but nothing compared to the 20% we are beginning to see now as desperate owners are realizing that they may lose their investments if they do not find tenants.The lower quality tenants actually have their pick of units now versus unable to find anything.As far as investing in new properties, it is a dangerous game if not backed by cash reserves, today's "low-money-down" owner is tomorrow's foreclosure.We see nothing on the horizon to change this pattern, rents will seemingly continue to drop and day-to-day management will continue to take more time and effort due to the lower quality.

But, my most recent layoff , due to a company merger, forced me to reexamine my financial future.  

He told us that the largest employer in town is a coal mine and, although they recently struck a new vein, huge layoffs are coming and the future of coal mines is bleak. 

Nowadays it's so easy for some corporation to just pack up at leave or lay off tens of thousands on a whim.