Derek I am on your team you keep at it... nothing wrong with paying cash.. most of the most successful and truly wealthy poeple investors i know have much of their real estate debt free and no other debt alltogether.. 

I knew nothing about rentals except that wealthy people had them so they must be worth the effort. 

Bottom line, however, is that if your goal is to become truly wealthy (not just in terms of finances), you must avoid debt.  

It’s the same as these diet and exercise programs that say you can eat what you want and work out 10 minutes a day and have the body of your dreams.

One thing to keep in mind, the population of wealthy that want to live in Southern California, Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, etc are only increasing around the entire world so prices will continue to climb but only the poor and middle class will be pushed out.

Real wealth is what you hold and not what you buy and sell for cash-flow. 

Wealth is created by our choices ......big as well as what may seem small.  

It's time IN the market, not timING the market that makes you wealthy over time though.

Acquiring wealth is not easy, nothing worthwhile is.It's also important to know that you don't necessarily need a huge pile of cash to start investing. 

Like I said they can laugh all they want ,I'm playing the game in real life now on my way to a very wealthy future,