It is ridiculous the hoops we have to jump through right now.

Seems ridiculous to have to pay tax to the USA if you have been living in a foreign country the past 10+ years.

Yea, I thought $50 an hour sounded pretty ridiculous myself.

Plus the politics/legislation for rentals has gone beyond ridiculous that I think a lot of smaller property owners will just cash out an TIC the units in the next yr/so while they still can.Ideally I'd like to buy in CA within an hr of the SF - do you have any suggestions on any areas that are worth looking at, and what the returns should be?

That's ridiculous.  

We started doing REI in the early 80's and she was always talking about her friend who went into REI with her two sons, and they huffed and puffed and did all the repairs themselves instead of paying ridiculous prices, like $85 as we did to change a washer.

There monthly charge isn't ridiculous, what hurts is the NSF charge when tenants are trying to figure out how it works.  

I agree that their age matters a lot.I wouldn't structure anything with a 3-year balloon for our personal portfolio unless the deal was just ridiculous with those terms and too hard to pass up.

Most of the time this is met with ridicule and sometimes a ban, and can be quite annoying to adept members (who are generally intolerant and dismissive of anybody who does not spend as much time on forums as they do)."

Her husband used to own the property, and basically when her husband died and her relatives took control and tried to kick her out (as she had no rights to stay), but her lawyer was able to outmaneuver her relatives and have her declared a tenant at this ridiculous rent.