As I finished showing property to a prospective client I noticed that while viewing the property I was able to predict that the current residents were involving in a divorce situation with almost pinpoint accuracy.

I know their income and I can predict their growth.

As mentioned by Charles & Bryan, cashflow is the key for buy-and-holds ... one can never predict the bottom but it it's spinning $$ off every month then you'll be able to weather (and enjoy) the next few turbulent years before housing settles and hopefully appreciates.

Although, the larger banks-chase and B of A, have gotten efficent in their processes and the only two offering the bulk of the larger pay outs-even though it's hard to predict which loans qualify.

Rent roll is 1% of asking price as it stands but I predict rents could be raised 20% without too much resistance.

Nobody can predict the future but I get the feeling things are going to change very soon.l but it may not affect San Jose as much as others because of the strong economy here.

What does everyone predict for their market projections in the next 5 years? 

Experts can predict appreciation but really it is not set in stone no matter what. 

“Cleveland home values have gone up 21.1% over the past year and are predicted rise 3.4% within the next year.”Not sure how accurate this is but 3.4% is not far off from what the long term national average is.Also this unit is about an hour south of the Cleveland market.

I'm in the early stages of our first BURRR renovation and we're predicting that we'll exceed the original budget by at least 1/3....mostly due to our failure to recognize things that really needed to be addressed (e.g., HVAC, plumbing) as well as the enormity of the project exceeding what time we thought we could contribute to the actual work.