Be patient and careful in these times.San Diego is a popular place and is a good scenario for other people.  

The city of Los Angeles and the local councilman have been trying to find alternative means of housing the homeless.

If it's going to take an investor 200 hours of work to find a good below market deal that that they can get for a $20,000 discount, but they could alternatively spend that 200 hours putting extra time into their job that will earn them $40,000, it makes sense for them to buy a turnkey property, at retail prices and just continue plugging away at their job.Most people obviously don't make this much per hour and therefore would benefit from putting time into buying properties themselves at below fmv, if they desire.

I knew it was very popular, so I didn't know if there were so more, non-traditional companies

Stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, gold, other alternatives all can have a place in the plan.In the meantime, matches in a 401k are "free money" and a wonderful thing I think everyone should take advantage of.Edit - Forgot to mention, I will take a listen to the Rich Dad piece.  

I currently rent and have entertained the idea of purchasing a duplex or other small multifamily unit and house hack (as I have noticed this is a seemingly popular idea amongst new investors).

We can use that time to improve our credit scores even more (they are both sitting right at about 680 for each of us), pay down our existing mortgage even more and search for financing via alternate sources.  

Dean Harris,It's good to know there is some alternative to TK properties for out of state investors.

(deposit at bank or using online eRentPayment.com) - If a tenant has "barriers" to paying rent, we put the burden of creating an alternative on them.

Account Closed  there are no tax's and insurance other than income tax... we are not allowed to solicit business on the forum side so if you want any other information about what I personally do you need to PM me.And I am not soliciting you at all I was just pointing out some alternatives to the rental business...