One of the methods to pay down this debt is to inflate the currency.

Of course, my area did not experience the price inflation that the bubble introduced into the market where you're now looking to buy, so the values won't be dropping as much near me.

Deflation is much worse than inflation for property investors.

So 1.75% would be $514,000 ($9,000 / 0.175) Still lower than what I am looking for.So, I could double the rents to $16,000/month, which assuming inflation of 3% a year will happen in 72/3 (24 years) from now.

Tenants are paying off my loans , I may be gaining paper value due to inflation, and I definitely put myself in a better position to eliminate income taxes.

They don't over inflate the values.

I actually think these appraisers are fair and are not trying to use inflated values - it is the other appraisers who are using unrealistically low values.

I haven't heard of anything like that either, but insurance can be offered for just about anything if the odds are right... for the insurer.

Whether its a short sale, at the auction or bank owned (REO), the odds of you being able to buy any particular property are very slim.

My wife is currently in school (part of our $30K) and will be a teacher once she graduates (if she can find a job) which will net us an extra $25K or so which we will immediately put towards our investments as we a very mindful of lifestyle inflation.