You won't have to work until you die, unless you want to, or can't downsize your lifestyle.An example: I live in a very tiny studio apt, but it's very well-managed. 

Shoot, if you could get a couple multi-family units, or a large building and convert it into tiny studios...The building I rented was a WW II conversion.

It's a tiny thing with a wash tub in one side, and a spinner on the other.http://www.amazon.com/Panda-Compact-Portable-Washi...I use double lint socks over the drain hose, and two other mesh screens after the lint socks, to catch all of the lint. 

Before:After:Here is the tiny kitchenLiving roomThis is using a 30 year mortgage, so equity build up is not very much.

It's the largest part of the market, in which the overall majority of the mortgages are originated.Thanks to the rise of the Mexican middle class and mortgages, more middle-class Mexicans can afford buying properties the same kind of properties wealthy Mexicans and foreigners are buying (some of them are even marketed exclusively to Mexicans in Mexican pesos) but they still represent a tiny minority of this market.

Our units were mainly tiny studios. 

@Joe Villeneuve  my comments are more directed towards the camp who's motto is" I just want cash flow and appreciation is icing on the Cake"  but its all a personal preference and risk tolerance and historic movement in RE values.And when your born and Raised in the Silicon Valley like myself and started in RE in 1975 I have seen the huge run ups.. so of course I just can't have anything but an appreciation bias for sure..   1975 home in Cupertino were I was raised my parents paid 25k for it.. today its worth close to 2 million and its just a Valley track house nothing special 3/ and 2 with a bonus room and 2 car garage on a 6k sq ft lot...and what you don't have in the bay area is with the very very tiny exception you have NO area that devalued at all...

Most were very tiny, about 250 square feet.This building was originally an old hardware store, and during the WW II housing crisis in the Bay Area, made into as many units as it could handle, with a few one-bedrooms thrown in. 

Could you just put a tiny home on it and rent that out? 

I grew up in the Bay Area and was going to move home to do sales and get a tiny 1 bd studio with my girlfriend.