Some of you guys who think that the repeal of glass-Stiegal or this regulation or that regulation enabled liar loans and 2008 aren't being realistic.

Cities will always be popular because at our core we thrive by interacting with other people however technology will enable people to work in city jobs whilst in non city areas.

I think that these programs just continue to enable a financially illiterate culture (obviously this includes non-BP'ers). 

My friends in university were not the econ majors dying to make big bucks on Wall Street - I prefer the company of academics, artists, social activists, musicians, even clergy. 

Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance (Section 203(k)This section of the HUD program enables homebuyers and homeowners to finance both the purchase (or refinancing) of a house and the cost of its rehabilitation through a single mortgage - or to finance the rehabilitation of their existing home.

Plus -it's best not to enable jerks in getting their way ;) You might be doing him (and everyone he deals with later on) a favor by showing how to do business ethically

The catch is that there is literally 0 vacancy and no forclosures in my market so I don't know if anybody will be able to relate to my situation but I have actually found that this is a fairly good market to get started in because while Im not swimming in money, I know I have good renters every month which keeps things very consistent.I realize Im cutting it a little close but the surplus of renters has enabled me to get into a number of different homes by releveraging the equity from the properties that are on a 15 year mortgages and it has actually worked out fairly well and could now bank roll just about any major occurance.

“What skills do they have that enable them to get this done?”

I do want to retire early enough to enjoy myself more, I have an okay work/life balance now but in say 5 years or so ideally I would like to quit my day job and have a few different sources of semi-passive income streams to enable me to spend more time doing what I like to do most (travel, spend more time with my wife and kids etc.).So in developing a plan, I was thinking today about my current goal of buying several SF and/or MF properties with reasonable CF over then next 5+ years to supplement my "early" retirement.  

Once again.... every situation is unique, and I'm not saying to be enablers of bad behavior.