If they own a business I wont move forward as long as I have alternatives that have w2 income.

While I see some drivers that will push up the inflation rate, I also see some drivers that will hold it down or even produce deflation.A better way to plan for the future, IMHO, is to consider the effects of these different possibilities on your investment alternatives and then choose a strategy that fares reasonably well under a variety of different scenarios.I do think wild hyperinflation is a low probability outcome and would likely be accompanied by or produced by other unpleasant events.

so i was busy today....eating a rushed chinese take out lunch in my mechanic's office while he fixed some thingamajig on my truck...as a lot of you know, i've been working my rear end off on a 14 unit rehab...well it's pretty much done and i've been getting about 30 calls a day to rent the apartments...so in the middle of all these calls, i get a call from MasterCard saying my credit card has been locked due to some unnecessary charges and to press 1 for more info.

So, if you can find someone with access to the MLS to help you run comps (or better yet, can get access yourself), that's the number one choice.Now, if you can't get access to the MLS, RealQuest is a decent alternative.

so with the farm - are you in the business or do you have alternate plans for the land?

Too many groupies trying to recruit.If you have not spent large sums with them hold off until you hear about the alternative (keeping your money in your pocket and learning almost for free).John Corey

I'm considering Bill Bronchick's "Alternative Real Estate Financing" course partly because of the recommendation of John Corey, whose opinion I value.

After the auction if a bank buys the property back you can always make an offer to them and get a loan... but in these cases the bank will hold out for more money whereas in a short sale situation you can more easily negotiate for a lower price.As an alternative to getting a loan for youself you can offer to buy a house "subject to" the original loan.

I tell all my staff that they need to be thinking about building additional or alternative streams of revenue to help them in retirement.  

As our smart BP community has recommended there are alternatives to the Government policies called "private flood insurance".