This would reduce risk and speculation on future appreciation. 

I personally don’t like speculation so I wouldn’t dump all that equity into one single family house with no cash flow.

House hacking would be the best option for this area though (almost only really viable option for investing without large cash reserves, unless you flipping).Big Bear Airbnb strategy is speculative right now with most Airbnbs up there not preforming well at the present, unless you have a lot of experience.

All this is speculation though.

Could be worth speculating into at least one property there and just holding it for the long run with how inexpensive they are. 

But I'm not sure what that has to do with carrying a large mortgage where you are just breaking even and speculating that property will continue to appreciate.  

Make no mistake: syndications are highly speculative investments in a PROMOTER with limited upside, but the very real chance of losing your entire principal that are suitable ONLY for highly-experienced investors who understand the risk level and what it means to have no access to your capital once invested for 5 or more years after the investment.

There is a lot of speculation in the market that investors should not buy real estate during a bear market or high inflation period.

Neighbors and others have speculated about what may have been going on in the house and with the tenant, but no one knows for certain what occurred behind closed doors.

So it stops… for some time.If I were to speculate here so publicly (where I suspect the perpetrators will also read this,) I’d say that some wholesaler/investor may unwittingly use a “reputable” VA company for his/her own needs, putting my info on that VA company’s radar (again.)