I realize that the resultant vacancies waiting for HOA approvals will kill my cash flow.All in all, I cash flowed OK when I had it, before the change in rules, and was able to profit from the market fluctuations, The condo complex was land-marked though, needed a new roof that cost over a million to replace.

Hopefully the dream will become reality one of these years :D maybe if i could lay off the brick and mortar for 5 seconds ;-)Cheers,Mark

Hi Mark, I would say if you have *no* experience in RE at all then consider purchasing a duplex or multi-family and live in the other side (duplex) or one of the units (multi) and rent out the other(s) if you have the means. 

@Jon Holdman and @Mark Nolan I'm curious why both of you guys are strongly recommending to only lend in first position.

Might help you save more efficiently by showing you better where your money is going, best of all its FREE.Househacking - A term to describe living in a property with tenants, something I plan to do, I would look into it.Bench mark or rule of thumb metrics - 50% rule, 1% rule, 2% rule, Cap Rate, Ect ect.

If there is room, mark up the property and bring in a buyer.

Thank you Mark for the response.

Mark, I think that it is really depend on the law in which the assessment goes by.

You will scar the brick by leaving black "burn" marks on it.

The same for every crisis for the last 50 years.For those of you who like to read, The author of the article that Bryan references also coauthored a book All the Devils are Here which goes into a lot more details.Another very easy read that covers the subprime debt/credit defaults swaps story is The Big Short by Mark Lewis.More challenging but a wider view is Nouriel Roubini's Crisis Economics.and if you don't like reading but can handle a documentary movie, Inside Job again does a decent job of touching on the subject.