I was entertaining this possibility of rapid appreciation when I first made the purchase and put down just 5% ($12,000), got an adjustable rate mortgage, and pay mortgage insurance. 

It's not proper remediation, it's illegal to not do proper remediation and if you think selling a remediated house might be a stain on your reputation, try selling one where you claim to have remediated it but haven't (which is what this advice is).Meth is nasty, nasty stuff causing advanced and rapid neurological damage in children and pets and slower, but no less advanced neurological damage in adults.  

I finally closed on my first duplex in Grand Rapids, MI.  

If building tracks growth then we could see steady growth well beyond 5 years.Now for all the qualifiers.1) Interest rates - if we see a rapid increase in interest rates and we already know that the FED has stated an increase is coming, we could see a huge rush as rates begin to increase and then a big lull while people adjust to the new norm.

Hint: They were not heavily leveraged and had a rapid exit strategy from their leveraged positions.Consider precious metals.

Cedar Rapids/Eastern Iowa folks, anyone been involved in an REI group that would recommend it.  

I've looked at quite a few MFs lately that are doing much worse than 50% expense ratios due to elevated vacancies, distressed units needing rehab that the owner can't afford, and very high turnover-related expenses.These situations call for apartment turnaround specialists, which I don't claim to be, but clearly units can be bought for $7-12K each all over fly-over country and someone who knows what they're doing can do very very well against a backdrop of rapidly rising numbers of renters in years ahead, due to tightening lending standards and so many more people with blighted credit.

Yes you might have all cash and that's attractive but it NOT that attractive to take that big of a difference.As you said if the land is real valuable redevelopment can give you great returns on the back end.Also a 7 cap might not be bad if you discover for instance that rent rates are increasing at a really rapid clip per year on average for that area.

If nothing ever breaks, cash will be available for you for any other purpose.As long as your property will provide you with positive cash flow on a consistent basis, you won't be rocked by market fluctuations, including rapid depreciation of real estate values.

Plus this area is growing rapidly with new schools; hospitals and recreation meaning property value will continue to rise putting it further out of my price range.