@Yael DoronIf you're working with a $150,000 budget and aiming for high ROI through rental income, consider nearby areas around Phoenix that still offer affordability and growth potential.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

Quote from @Tom Hall: My mortgage rate is very high  and I would like to pay some of it off, so that my monthly payments would go down a bit, I dont know if it is financial smart to do it or not?

Would love cash flow, of course, but if I could at least break even on a highly appreciating property, I'd be happy with that. 

Without the high leverage you reduce the top source of return in CA RE which is achieve via the appreciation on a high leverage property.  

It's pretty easy to see that real estate proces peaked around 2007-2008 and then crashed during the Great Recession.Around 2011-2012 prices started to recover and got back to their pre-Crash highs around 2015-2016, but really 2018-2019 when adjusted.So, why are newbies reading books written BEFORE 2019 and thinking that you can still successfully invest using the EXACT advice in these relatively "old" books?

I am highly motivated, dedicated, and prepared to do whatever it takes to gain valuable knowledge and experience in real estate deals.

While this is a great and highly motivating goal, most people are either clueless or incorrect in their belief as to what is required to obtain this “lifestyle”.Understanding of the “how to” get there is further obscured by the misleading, and often patently false “pathways” sold by real estate educational MARKETING companies as workshops, upsold to association memberships, upsold to mentorships.

You have to have exit values of single family homes high enough where build cost can work.

I was talking to a RE friend.He said it's a bad time to buy* rates are high* homes are expensive in most marketsLooking to hear some counterpoints.