Consider there are some fundamentals that are important to have in place before any one thing can have the impact it is capable of.  

The best part is, they can do this before you even enter due diligence it can help with negotiation, pre-PSA if you want toCrime reports - this has been thoroughly mentioned on this thread already, but you absolutely must read crime reports before you pull the trigger on purchasingI'm a believer in investing in C class neighborhoods, as long as you solve for the financials, management needs of the property and the submarket fundamentals support the investment for years to come.

it depends" - I think your lifestyle may dictate much of this decision, but fundamentally you probably win more with the renting and deploying the capital into investments that will earn you money in the meantime, you can always buy a home and you can always give some bank a big deposit for the home you plan to live in, but in the meantime if you have the ability to buy some rental or invest in a real estate venture, go for it, let your money work for you while you can.

Appreciation creates cash flow ... price increases and rent increases go hand in hand as they are driven by very similar supply and demand fundamentals, but most expenses (eg: fixed rate mortgage payments) do not scale as such.

You need to be dominate in your market and the fundamentals of good housing and the viability of real estate in your area.  

@Carmelo Lopez I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out, It will be an awesome opportunity for those of us that use good fundamentals to grow our business.When the last bubble burst it was great for me because I was able to capitalize on all the gamblers who rolled the dice with excessive risk taking and got caught holding unmanageable debt packages. 

You and I can just chat it out with a room full of hungry, question asking, real estate folk.....talk about how the underlying fundamentals of investment, capital, valuation, and flow/cycle of markets.

I’m going to use any means possible to screen tenants how I want while still being in “fundamental” compliance.

There are so many stories of people going from $100k in debt to millionaire status in this time frame simply by executing these fundamentals. 

Unrelated to investing per se but relative to fundamentally addressing the real world practices of effecient infrastructure in residential buildings as a whole is the extreme and profound unwillingness of individual property owners to actually embrace and implement equipment & methodologies to mitigate the "purported" climate crisis.From my myopic perspective having to fight with residential customers who have zero knowledge of thermo dynamic, ohm's law and efficiency measures is highly hypocritical.People claim to care but are closed minded to energy saving and efficient operating homes.End rant