I have recently noticed a bunch of new mansions being built in queens ny near my grandmothers place and i thought it was weird but it put 2+2 together and it made perfect sense Scarsdale and Manhasset are now so overpopulated and the property taxes are so high it makes sense for the upper class to just live in the city than the suburbs and save 40k$ a year in property taxes on there 6million dollar mansion and send there kids to private school bc after all there kids will graduate and move on hopefully and taxes are forever :(  With that in mind if your in the really hot trendy central area with great property taxes than yea you'll probably be golden in 2 years but if the area is really hot but not so central with higher taxes maybe not so goldenso all in all i think take all the advice here with a grain of salt bc it may be the smarter thing to live there if you know you want to live in that area anyways and can afford to do so but at the same time you don't want to commit yourself to something that may close the door to other opportunities further down the line...good luck and be sure to let us know how everything turns out...

There are different ways to go about it and I do not believe that there is one single golden rule.

You might find it to be a lot more work than you want to put in.You could always fix and flip cheap properties right here in the golden state for the time being, make money from that for a while and put a nice down payment into an apartment house somewhere down the line either in state or out of state.  

Sometimes you have to  get rid of the dogs to acquire the golden goose eggs...

Originally posted by @Shavar Golden:@Kirkley Cain - here is what I would do if I was in your shoes.  

I understand that the increase in value isn't cash in your pocket and the appreciation isn't "cash flow" but nonetheless I feel like you'd be killing the golden goose if you sold. 

He signed, i signed, we're golden!

If you can find a property that allows you to live in one unit and remaining rents cover these expenses, you're pretty much golden. 

When you know what you want out of an investment, then you should learn as much as you can about it and don't forget about the two golden rules:1) Don't lose money2) don't forget rule number 1

Just keep good records and you'll be golden!