And unless your going to hold for life ( which not many do) Appreciation is where the wealth is made..

It just sounds like a great way to build wealth. I

I always suspected that to achieve anything of great notoriety in Architecture one needed to have access to wealthy friends or develop projects oneself.

Wealth is built slowly over time, with consistent discipline.

Wealth is made in the buy and hold strategy of real estate.

I don't know much about Ohio market, but I see everyone flocking there for section 8 income and that sounds wild to me as real wealth is build on long term appreciation of stable assets in solid areas.Don't fear the stability of a W2.

I think a lot of people are hoping a mentor/coach/RE guru, will hand hold them and they buy X amount of properties and generate X amount of dollars in rental income and they become "financially free from their W2 job" and wealthy. 

Whatever be the strategy, if you can hold in bay area for long term without money from your pocket, you are likely to end up being wealthy. 

buy a mult with 3% down and live in 1 unit and have the other 1 or 2 units pay the bills. rinse and repeat. get wealthy and be extra generous.

The longer that you are in the real estate investing game, the more that you realize that actual wealth is built through appreciation.