Quan Nguyen I agree that 2% seems pretty unattainable unless you are buying in very depressed areas and/or really know how to find great deals.

My market is still depressed and about 30-50% below the 2006 peak.

I have been very eager to buy my first rental but the the price of oil being so low will for sure cause our housing market to experience some type of depression.

You can also see if there are obvious signs that a tank was abandoned (filled with sand or foam) in the past--like a fill or vent pipe (wide pipes going vertically up) near the basement outside, or a weird circular depression about the size of a tin can top in the concrete usually in front of the house.

@Helme Marticorena The only way you get to positive cashflow when house hacking a duplex or SFH is if you're in a depressed market.

I used to work in Allentown before the downtown was redone, it was a depressed area then, but from what I'm hearing with the downtown changing things are starting hum up there.

It was depressing between 2008-2013.

Then the real depression will set in.Guess I'll have to re-listen to Rich Dad, Poor Dad or start up The One Thing.

i read a few pages of the posts that you linked to. not the whole thing. it just kind of depressed/annoyed me listening to too many people saying stuff that is not true and contridictory sometimes. 

I think my greatest achievement was surviving the real estate Great Depression without losing any of my investor's money (although I lost a heck of a lot of my own), without losing any property, and came out the other side with a much larger and stronger real estate investment business than I ever would have imagined.I think my "proudest achievement" is having raised over $25 million from investors (and growing), all by word-of-mouth and referrals.