I just read this article:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/19/meet-the-26-year-old-whos-taking-on-thomas-pikettys-ominous-warnings-about-inequality/While the main thrust is a debate about wealth inequality, and whether famed French economist Thomas Piketty is correct in calculating how quickly the wealth gap is widening, there was this one blurb that confirmed that real estate is the best investment."

I bought my first foreclosure flip for 213k, put 25k into it (238k note), and now will sell for around 350k to 360k.  After all expenses paid, I should net around 90k-100k.  With the goal of buying and holding and doi...

We cash-flow properties and have built in equity oftentimes.  

I have about $5K in savings (uncle Sam just took over $6K of what I had thanks to self-employment tax - it's a long story), and about $200K in equity in my house (only 9 payments left + a small second mortgage of less than $20K).

There is roughly 80K in equity to pull out if I were to refinance which I would like to use to buy more cash flow property.

I would guess the value of the land plus maybe 50% in equity in the completed project, some might say double the value of the land in equity.

This loan will be on a 25 yr amortization schedule with a 5 year balloon.I'm a bit nervous about the balloon because if the property doesn't appreciate in five years I'll only have ~7% (aside from my leveraged 10% downpayment) in equity and will need to come up with a significant sum to get my LTV sufficient to refinance with a commercial lender.

We've probably raised over a million dollars in equity from the site in the last 2 or so years either through our fund, JVs, or crowdfunding.

Wow you wouldn't think the lady would just let 50k in equity go that easy.Certainly not what I think of when I think flip but sure looks a good way to do it.

I think this would permit me to pay my residence to free and clear status and have $122+k in equity to use to acquire other investment property...Has anyone gone through a scenario like this?