The niche you may specialize should come from experience and the market influences you must deal in.

What happens when your tenant buyer doesn't buy and leaves the property in substantially worse condition than at the start of the lease?

Capital gains does not apply to a fix (substantial) and flip.

Here is the latest for example: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/03/21/feb-existing-home-sales/2004761/orhttp://www.thenichereport.com/breaking-news-2/finally-more-homes-for-sale/All of them say that "professionals expects home values to end 2013 up an average of 4.6 percent and rise cumulatively by 22 percent, on average, over the next five years" and that "the supply of homes for sale is beginning to rise"My question is how can it all influence REI and how in general should everybody analyze when to buy and when to wait.And i would also love to hear your predictions.Thanks in advance for your reply!

I'm actually 35 and have a substantial income.

I feel it will influence the prospective tenants- either they won't want to rent it, or they will consider that type of damage acceptable.

The price level is going to also be heavily influenced by the RE Value.

My mortgage pay down is quite substantial, but as I grow older, I am certain my monthly expenses will continue to rise.

If We adhered to the 2% rule on the offshore properties we bought we would have missed substantial cap gains.I recently met a builder from the UK that bets on double digit cap gain regardless of rents , the same for my home town in Australia.

We've never refinanced and have actually built a substantial amount of equity even with the home values going down.