Remember that real estate is cyclical, and there will be a day when the market will punish those that disobeyed the fundamentals of investing.Even I doubted myself.

Given the market fundamentals in the valley, I feel fairly confident that we'll have good steady appreciation in the future, but I'm not comfortable investing in anything that's going to have a negative cashflow.If you are buying rentals right now in Salt Lake, how are you handling this?

That's the fundamental problem.

However, there are some places in the country where a renter could expect to pay more than twice that amount and the average monthly rent stands at $2,757, or more than $33,000 per year.Why rental prices matterHome prices often get the most attention in the national media, yet only 65.4% of Americans own their homes, and that percentage has declined in each of the past eight years:Meanwhile, the percentage of vacant rental properties has also fallen dramatically after peaking in 2009 at 10.6%, and now stands at 8.7%:It will be curious to monitor how these two data points trend in coming years, and whether this will represent a fundamental change in where Americans live.

It's based on sound fundamentals and principles that have been applied for half a century.

The SF Bay area has good fundamentals, and will probably continue to see appreciation.  

I signed up for Bigger Pockets a few weeks ago and have spent about 3 hours a day listening to podcasts and another 1-2 reading the forums, browsing the real estate sites and playing with the various calculators trying to make sure I understand the fundamentals around how to identify a good deal.So basically at this point I probably know just enough to be dangerous. :)I think the next step for me is to start trying to find that first deal, and so as a first step towards that goal I'm introducing myself here.  

., this is a really good fundamental question. 

Every investor should take a step back and ask if they understand fundamentals behind how they are investing, and then also determine which part of the market cycle the commodity is within.

It seems to me that if you put together a good deal having read, understood, formulated a plan, and then implemented the plan based on the fundamentals of a good deal which I am sure you can find on BiggerPockets.com, then “They will come”.