There is the other side to just compounding a good return after good return after good return versus trying to knock it out of the park every time and having one great return followed by a not so great one, followed by a loss...

What's the next best location you'd recommend - kind of like Broken Bow was 4 years ago?

I'd have been bowing down if you'd found a house in that condition in Stoneham for that price haha, but still an AWESOME deal!

People graduate high school and don't know the most basic things that will affect them for the rest of their lives, like how compound interest works.But I don't think anything has really changed in America. 

However, people who made bad note investors don't get bailed out by capital appreciation; their mistakes are compounded by their lack of control over the property, by a court system that assumes the note holder is a bad guy and the borrower a victim; by foreclosure laws requiring a note holder to jump through loops and pay huge legal fees to repossess a property for non payment, by not obtaining title insurance and discovering that their are superior liens on the property, by note sellers who provided incomplete or misleading information, etc.  

Stocks have done great this year, but over the long term, the DJI average is around 7-10% compounded rate of return.

This is a compound annual growth rate of 27%.Real estate is about the long view.  

The compound benefits of tax-deferral generally far out weigh paying the taxes and allow investors to significantly build their net worth (wealth).

Plus I won't have to bow down to the prices of my competitors in Lakewood. 

You aren't going to retire from $100k but it can cashflow and compound slowly over time.