The third thing I do is add a toilet water saver bag to the top of the tank. 

Unfortunately, the market has tanked over the last three years and a price that would have been cheap three years ago may be grossly overpriced right now.

The real estate market tanks and the guy looses his shorts.

He sort of 'jumped the shark' after RICH DAD, POOR DAD.

Headline was coastal homes tank or something similar.

There are plenty of duplex, triplex available in the central LA area (east/west/south of downtown LA) that have good numbers -- especially with an owner occupant for buy and hold - you could also get them rehab'ed & put tenants in them for a value appreciation play and flip them to another investor - though this may take some time to find the buyer if you don't have connects to investor buyers in that market.In regards to the West Valley area (Sherman Oaks, etc) ... that area is full of competition and they are doing stupid, stupid things.First they show up like sharks in their Land Rovers, Merc S Class, etc... thats all fine and dandy, I'm showing up in my M5 or Ferrari anyways too... but then they do stupid things like grossly over-offer and over pay for the properties and either 1) make small margins or 2) do crappy rehabs and make a little bigger small margin.I've decided to let them play with each other, and found better opportunities with bigger margins in the same general area (just not the higher end west valley area).West Valley has higher buy-in costs ($400-$500K purchase for a fixer needing $60K) and resale around $600K....

My partner is there now, and both water tanks are ruined.

keep in mind you max out all those credit cards your FICO is going to tank.. 

Some people think sharks are great and wonderful creatures, while others hunt them down and kill them.

The propane delivery company did not get my tank filled over the holiday and on Jan 2nd the building was 34 degrees.