I also dropped the rent on the couple vacancies I have, just to get bodies in them. 

And in the past, for less credit worth tenants, we take two months rent deposit, but with rents in the $2,000+/month, we're take only one month, (NY state now limits it to one month) and if we quibble over every little hole in the wall, no body gets anything back, and we'll wind up in court every time.

But over the years builders (using the strategies I previously outlined) decided that building in high risk flood zones was a good plan (AKA every beach property or property built right on large body of water including rivers) because the government will bail out the property owners which they have (kinda) and are currently in debt 20+ billion.

I'd like that to be my bread and butter.

You could raise your desk up and down to prevent your body from loosing feeling from the waist down.

It seems that the cost of living is so low and the general population has grown accustomed to having low expectations such that survival on government benefits suits many otherwise able-bodied residents.

As these types of investments were historically put together and run by very experienced people / companies Not someone who is pretty much a beginner in real estate with no real body of work behind them.

I work with a handful of investors, but it isn't the bread and butter of my business.

I'm seeing more and more interest and activity in Toledo real estate investing.No worries mate,Downtown seems to be blossoming but our "bread and butter" B class looks pretty much the same to me.I've heard from quite a few folks that the SFH market is getting "hotter" but I just don't see that happening.We still seem to be buying quite a lot of product without much competitionLow inventory for A class is great news and all multifamily deals have been snapped up.So to summarize, the market is much better than when I started 6 years ago lolGreat to see you contributing on here more frequentlyMuch success

Bread and butter of REI.