I just did not see that as reasonable for a home of the price range to 1) sell quickly nor 2) command a strong sales price or get into a multiple offer bid off.

As an investor event's like this make me stay away from investing within 5 miles.I have decided to open up my search range within an hour out of the city such as Yonkers, Northern NJ, and even a little further.Also as a primer on calculating ARV to compare two properties use this file http://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/JasonScott/file/estimating-arv by @J Scott

Most of the time it ranges from $250 to $500. 

Always get the house in the range of the rent that you are already paying so that it won’t be heavy on you to pay the mortgage.

In my area, the condo rent out very quickly for the price range of $1650 - $1700.

My plans is to purchase, over the next 3-4 years, 4 duplexes in the $50k range.

Obviously, tax planning/estate expenditure will also be driven by how much you wish to leave for heirs.If you do plan to sell, perhaps the time to do it, will be when your engineering income goes to zero to help minimize tax hit (and perhaps that is when you need cash).General retirement wisdom seems to be to keep 1-2 years cash (near cash) buffer of expenses... then you are less likely to have to sell in poor market conditions.I also like the diversity of fairly broad index funds and ETFs (costs can be as low as 0.05%).

Rates and terms are generally in the 4.5% to 6.5% range or higher depending on the properties, loan amount and borrowers strength.  

It seems like multiple estimates provide the whole picture, and allow a "range" of possibilities.

There's a lot involved in it, ranging from lessons about the culture in the Philippines, what to expect from a great VA (and what to not expect!)