I have to sit down with my wife and run numbers on a few houses in Hawaii and in SA and show her why I'm so hesitant to do anything on the island :) 

If we let the house sit vacant for the rest of the year, can we still claim it as an investment property and deduct our closing costs, depreciation, travel to close the deal, etc?

@Robert Palladino Sounds like you are more concerned with the possibility of the rental sitting vacant for awhile.

and the others since I am sitting here in Sin city.. is the Casino companies down 75%.. 

kind of stinks paying interest though to sit in my checking getting no interest. what is saying?

People will always need a place to live (rates are crazy volatile right now though I think they will stabilize and remain low), but If you sit back and look at the big picture do you think people will be buying half million dollar homes now and/or in the near future?

Now is time to sit on your hands and stay cash rich, and not to buy overpriced real estate which in a few short moments will be worth wayyyyy less.

The owner was an investor sitting on a vacant home.

Sit on the sidelines for a good opportunity.

@Jarrod Pettit most investors are sitting on the sideline for the short term (1-3 months) while this gets sorted out.