REI is still equity speculation that the area will appreciated, and your rent will keep up with costs. 

Those numbers are pretty speculative but you can get there with the right management, location, and optimization on your listing.

You don't want to supply pure speculation to the bank. 

Just like most property purchases in California, you speculate that you'll make your ROI based upon appreciation, not cashflow.If you want immediate cashflow, you should have either bought a Class B or C property, or made a 100+ offers at prices that generated your cashflow target, to find the one owner motivated enough to accept.

So as  things stand, renting is a pure speculation play. 

Well, believe it, as it has happened, I spoke to the title company myself so this is not speculation or heresay.Apparently, as explained to me by the title company, BofA scans the public records and when they see a transaction sold for more than twice what it was purchased for (regardless of the amount of repairs needed - they don't care about that)they flag it and investigate.

However, this is speculation that could always change.

Without investing in an appreciation area the only thing left is speculating on the cash flow.

When I say I'm seeing 1%... this is purely on paper, with some speculation.

Also, there are different flavors of appreciation, and not all of them are speculative but they all sure are nice.