( I plan on traveling there once I have a plan in place)The sustainable answer would be to find other passive investors as opposed to those who get paid referrals to lead you back to a sale.

This means as long as you have the income to sustain the mortgage, you should be good to go (of course credit, down payment, etc.).Therefore regarding your current place, if you intend to keep it as a rental the lender will want to see a lease and some money in the bank (each lender is different).

You need to look at what will resonate best with you.

Its impossible to have a crystal ball @Jonathan Vona, there are people like Robert Kiyosaki and other economists who predict a correction / recession / crash or whatever you want to call it this year or by 2019.If you are going by the 10-12 years cycle then it may happen, if you are looking at the debt levels in the US and Europe then yes it doesn't look sustainable especially with rising interest rates.

So explain the benefits in a way that resonates with them.  

I totally agree and hope to find the right property that can sustain it's own mortgage and also be affordable for us to get started with.  

But I would definitely recommend listening to that show to see if there might be something there that resonates for you in terms of a possible strategy shift.

We are very well capitalized, we could permanently sustain 35% vacancies and 50% for several years.

Welcome @Nathan CowanDefinitely listen to all the BP podcasts - they will expose you to a variety of different strategies and one may resonate with you.For me, I started flipping in Chicago (wanted to build up some capital) and am now starting to expand into rentals as well.Larry

So to me that seem's like a resonable offer, it's going threw wamu/chase.