Quote from @Heidi Fischer: HelloI’m a high W2 earner and have been looking for a STR and finally went into contract but can’t close until mid-end of December 2024.

It's quite arduous attempting to sue an individual when you can't locate them and serve them.So if they have a good paying job, you can garnish wages or in the case of assets, you can put a lien on them and you'll get your money when they sell.

This is just markets behaving normally, Austin was my first target two years ago once I got wind of the permitting and homebuilding we saw the long coming in and whether it was 2,3 or 4 years the entry point was way in front of us.I don't know if anyone gets "use to" 7% rates without home prices behaving and/or wages responding appropriately.

You may be able to get a levy against their bank account or file a wage garnishment without the need for going to collections. 

The great thing about living in a high cost of living area is that your salary / wages are hopefully also very high.If you are a new college grad, I would focus the next 1-3 years on increasing your salary as much as possible(gain new skills, new certifications, change employers, etc).Once you make more money, you can easily get in a position to buy a property on a more frequent basis.Best of luck!

I would NOT remove any money from index funds as I expect those to be a great earner into the future and very steady hedge against other avenues.

There is a mid-match between wages and housing costs.

Quote from @Vhernadette Sasing: Hi everyone,I am high income earner making more than 500k per year with my W2 job, 40hour week.  

In my circle of family and friends, I will say that anyone that owns RE especially in CA has over at least several million in networth and they weren't high W2 earners (no surgeons or attorneys, but librarians, accountants, etc) but this takes years 15 to 30+ years..

The issue that i see with miami is the money mostly comes from the top earners.