One day an older couple walked down my driveway with a ladder and proceeded to start harvesting my fruit.

It is a bit different with residential buyers of single family homes where it isn't the profit that gets squeezed with an increasing interest rate, but raw affordability.I would agree that rising rates will not create a dramatic uptick in foreclosures, although there will always be some newbies who structured their deals in a way where they won't be able to afford rate hikes.Other than being rich and buying things for cash instead of financing (or being the financier), you might use rising interest rates to your advantage in convincing someone to sell their property to you now instead of later when values may be lower due to higher interest rates.I'm not an economist, my opinions are just amateur ones.

I worked hard and didn't hesitate to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

The fruit comes after the work has been put in! 

I'm a "low hanging fruit" kind of investor and there ain't much low hanging fruit in Austin anymore. 

When I go into buyin mode, I hit all sorts of avenues, but by far the easiest with the low hangin fruit is the REO rout.

So, pay vs do-it-yourself depends on how much you will use the gun.Unfinished hardwood is probably best left to the professionals unless you are seriously handy with tools.Just to see if we could, we did a pine plank floor starting with raw boards.

Looking to dialoguge on this topic so let me begin by saying this; I do not believe that we should have an open border, however in a country where we enjoy the melting pot status, where Ellis Island brought in the ancestors of some of our finest citizens, where none of us originated here, and also where we brought in millions against their will(slavery), I think it only fitting that we work to make a way that people from south of the border can come here and enjoy the fruits of this nation just like those who came from Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

We have seen the low hanging fruit exploited. 

The "low fruit" is gone, but the area still has some good deals especially when compared to most parts of CA.