The budget and timeline was easy to predict and manage.

For Santa Cruz, both of those predictions turned out to be quite fanciful.

Roofs can be expensive, but it's a predictable expense.

I have found great success in remote investing once the proper property management is in place.When it comes to loans, try and stick to something steady and predictable.

Unless an investor is confident in a market for appreciation, most focus on cash-flow because its more predictable and controllable.

Very, very low default rates over 50 year spans.I would take a strong credit tenant with predictable yield over lots of small tenants where some will go out over time.

It's incredibly tough to predict a market downturn, and if you buy solely for appreciation, you find yourself stuck in a bad deal in 3 years times.

If you were to BRRR a property into the bargain you could refinance just as you’re ready to move or you could sell and 1031 into possibly a larger MF that you could live in, renovate the other units and that you could then stabilize and refi etc.Try to avoid thinking of your rent as throwing your money away and instead consider that you are leveraging your capital in a more intensive way by investing outside your primary residence and choosing to let your landlord take care of Maintenance Expenses, Cap Ex, taxes and insurance so that you are able to more accurately predict your cash flows in order to pivot ready for your next move.If your NPV on the deal is greater than $18000 ( $1500 x 12)  then you haven’t paid your rent anyway right?! 

Back in 2005 (after hurricane Katrina hit), I predicted a real estate collapse as well but I was mistaken by not predicting how severe it would be.

It’s very hard to predict.