They are just playing with fire, really, but it happens everywhere.

Amount of money you spend matter (big players spend tens of thousands of dollars per month on marketing).

Quote from @Jaclyn Spinelli: Quote from @Aristotle Kumpis: Are you looking for more of a cash flow play vs appreciation? 

Some carriers offer loss assessment insurance, which can come into play when the HOA experiences a large covered insurance loss, such as a hail storm requiring roof replacement or a fire requiring building replacement.  

A lot of new constructions are more of equity plays than cash flow plays.

From there, you could do a cost segregation study on that property which will lower taxes for that year and potentially create additional carryover losses.Always options to keep reinvesting assuming the equity is there to keep playing the real estate market 

This typically comes into play with big banks (Chase, etc) who are buying the loans to place them on their balance sheet.

I think the play would be buying a property that needs some rehab and you can split off a new lot due to new lot sizes and setbacks.

I I am playing with different scenarios and want a back of the napkin number I will use https://www.omnicalculator.com/collections/real-estate.

It's pretty plug and play and then when you get the full report, it's all in one PDF.