A few examples of people who seem to have good strategies for a market in flux: Show 2 with Karen Rittenhouse on “subject-to” deals, which seems like an excellent strategy in a market where homeowners may have just lost their jobs and can’t afford their mortgage, but want to stay in their houseShow 19 with Tracy Royce, discussing short sale strategies in great detail.

I don't really know about financing, I tried to get a equity loan for a property,  that I couldn't afford, I had the first two houses all paid and tried to get a loan for a third one that I liked in a very good area of town. 

This area is a very affordable place to live but it comes with not much appreciation, job growth or population growth. 

Per his request we did clean some mildew / mold (small spot behind furniture ) and it has not grown back.  

If you can afford it, take over the mortgage, rent it out, and get that place working for you to pay off that PITI.

It stayed around so long because we had to live with our choices until we could afford to replace it.Leasons learned:If it pops, It dates.  

She says he's one of the only reputable and affordable contractors she can find due to other contractors' lack of follow through, availability to do estimates and lack of quality work in the past.

. - sourceAnd while the average project approval time for new construction is about four months nationally, it takes eight months on average in L.A.To recap, here are some of the challenges inhibiting development in LA:Getting entitlements for new development is expensive and timelyNIMBYism and the control of local communities over the planning process adds tremendous risk as a project could be stopped due to law suits, lack of approvals, or requirements which make deals unprofitableThe high cost of land and entitlements coupled with a lack of incentives restricts the pool of developers who can afford to developBecause it is so challenging to develop and because we have such a shortage of housing, developers can only make their deals profitable if they target high-end buyers, further contributing to macro-gentriction wherein only the affluent can own homesThat said, it isn't impossible for a developer to develop.

(I use tools to do this.)And, you can take the pulse of a market every 6 months to gauge where it might be going by following job growth, migration trends, major employer actions, affordability, etc.I don't buy purely on appreciation potential. 

By searching out mispriced assets - Assets (property) that is being sold for less than what it's worth.Let's take a look at how our Sokcho Investors apply Intelligent Investing rules to Property #2.Original Asking Price: KRW 150,000,000After Negotiations: KRW 100,000,000 + 10,000,000 for all the furnitureKey Money deposit from new tenant: KRW 100,000,000Out of Pocket Price for our investor: KRW 10,000,000For KRW 10,000,000 our investors were able to get a room full of very nice furniture (in fact, one regret they had was leaving the nice furniture in there and not replacing it with sturdier, furniture) and control of an apartment in this building:Here's an important point to consider: The negotiation down to KRW 110,000,000 wasn't simply an arbitrary number to 'buy low' - but it was based on understanding the market and knowing what the current key money rate for the apartment was.