That being said, assuming you invest in CA while you live in CA your returns wont be as high but you will also have that good looking income and lifestyle should things take a turn.Bakersfield is a great market to invest in if you are looking at investing in CA because there is still good cash flow and if you look at some of my previous posts you can see there is growth here, but it really comes down to if you want to gamble and potentially make more income than you could have even with your job, or if you want to take the job and play it safe and increase your investments over time.  

I think that people are just gambling that the Lender just won't bother.Now, let's say you locked in a 30 year fix rate mortgage at 4%.Why would you take a chance of having to refi that beautiful Mortgage if the Lender calls the Loan?

@Wayne Brooks simple advice, seems like a pretty bad gamble given the bottom line!

Remember the BP mantra  appreciation like your talking about is gambling and its all about cash flow  :)  you speculator you !!! 

Best of luck in your REI adventures and hope to see your first deal/purposed deal posted.Jay,

That can work I have seen it done but now you are talking about gambling.  

Yay, but let me be honest; I've recently dedicated my latest career adventures to real estate so there have been a lot of "firsts" for me lately.  

@Michael Chilcott it's definitely better to get in at a fixed rate if possible, but it just depends on if you want to take the gamble and how sure you are of the value that may come back.  

The plus side of my adventure so far is my wife and I saved some money to invest, but we just didn't know what to invest it in.

This is a gamble but possibly worth the risk if you are a risk taker.