OMG way too many off comments here, as San Francisco rentals are in a different stratosphere of crazy  1- your tenants are most likely under rent control (unless you hit the lottery and your bldg. was built after June 1979).

Sure some take off quicker than others, but that doesn't mean you will OR you won't.Wholesaling is not quick money.Flipping is not quick money.Landlording is not quick money.Note investing is not quick money.Buying tax leins is not quick money.Private/Hard money lending is not quick money.Etc, etc, it's all a business & if you treat it like a lottery ticket it probably won't work.If you don't have $900.00 for a course, I'm sorry you have bigger problems.

But they tell themselves a story about how magic is going to happen (they will stop missing their credit card payments, that promotion at work is coming any day now, they'll win the lottery, whatever), and that's why they are overpaying in rent "contributing towards their equity." 

A few months ago I was lucky enough to get drawn on a land lottery for a multi residential lot. so this will be my biggest project so far and looking forward to it. 

If that's the case, document it/photograph everything/buy a lottery ticket - it's your lucky day.  

Years later we talked about that car and having a scrap yard come to haul it away.The lawyer did not need the money and I suspect the scrap yard knew what they got and probably felt similar to if they had won the lottery. 

If you expect to be wealthy you should follow my simple plan :I use the 70/-10 -10 -10 rule 70% to a house I can’t afford ,high interest consumer debt ,and lavish meals eating out 10% goes to investing in my state lottery tickets ( gotta help those seniors!)

I'm thankful that I won the birth lottery and had the privilege of being raised mostly in the USA.  

You would think they won the lottery but I remember those days coming from nothing decades ago.Where I go to get my massage the chiro office there was a box upfront.

The way we currently are going I don't see that happening unless I hit the lottery, which I don't play.