Appreciation is nice, but cash flow is instant and much easier to predict.I rented rooms at my first home, it covered the entire mortgage and most of the utilities.  

Purchasing turnkey you will be able to rent right away and buying a foreclosure you will gain instant equity once you rehab. 

Then we would buy a new sf to live in soon (we are engaged and plan on getting married in a yr or two).My real estate goals are not based on instant money now but on long term goals 15-20 yrs from now.  

Don't count on much appreciation anytime soon although many may have some instant equity after they are repaired.

Looking for ways to better and optimize my basement apartment I stumbled on BP and instantly got hooked.

I was instantly hooked on all aspects of investing at that point such as finding new properties, looking at comps, negotiating deals, going to auctions and project managing the restoration.

We want instant gratification. 

I was hoping I could invest in a property that I know of that is undervalued and end up with instant equity that would help me leverage another property, but it looks like it's not going to happen that way.  

So I landed some instant equity as well as my commission.It's a great building with a townhouse style layout around a corner.

My advice to you is to get as 'expensive' a house as you can, because that's an instant 50% equity after 3 years!