She likely inflated it, either underestimating expenses or not including certain expenses period.

@Cristian Aviles-Morales Get the seller to hold some of their money for a period of 3 years, while you work to get the property value to rise.

Cap rates will rise with time. 

If investors on the other hand valued safety first before return and said you know I just want to buy 3 to 5 caps.. as its a very long game and those while not great first few years.. rents tend to raise and the values rise as they don't get over run with low end tenants etc.but no one does.. at least on this site.. its all about hitting the highest returns that they think they need to meet their CRITERIA   Their CRITERIA cost many a lot of money. 

I could have it in savings and over time, I'll lose money with inflation... 

it is hard to say if San Diego RE as a whole is at a peak but 2018 had minimal San Diego RE appreciation (about the saqme as inflation rate) and so far 2019 has been similar.

Real estate is one form of protection against inflation.

In this way you could argue that rental property is inflation protected. 

I think the 5k jobs may have been inflated, but who knows. 

At the end of the day I guess I should have posted a post about expenses rising faster than rents in my area.