Link: LA TIMESHowever, with that being said, things have been very different with everything at record-high levels now, I have been hearing folks saying since 2015 that market is going to crash/collapse/tank and here we are an inch away from 2018 with no signs of tanking (although SF rental market is now claimed to have reached bubble popping stage).In my research on Austin, TX: I am landing on a similar issue like CA, where I will negatively cash flow around 5-7k initially and I want to avoid it.

Be sure to show everyone the garage and temp oil tank. 

Tanks?

., the real estate market tanking, family deaths & serious illnesses, culminating in my own cancer diagnosis in 2010 (not playing the sympathy card, just explaining my circumstances).

I know it sucks, but things can get twisted around so badly in these transactions that make the investor out to be a shark when all they were doing was to try to help.I suggest to just buy the short sale and do a fix and flip, fix and hold, or hold for the specified amount of time the bank is requiring and then resell.I do rent houses to my short sale homeowners all the time, but I never rent to them the house that I am short selling.

And that business can certainly be RE -- whether development, rentals, notes, etc, if you have a trusted management team running the business, there are generally ways you can completely extract yourself from the business.Sure, the business could fail, the stock could tank, and you could be left without financial independence, but again, that can happen with govenrment-backed interest-bearing securities as well.

that would be usury in Oregon.. careful to check Oregon law before you launch into this one.. loans under 50k are highly regulated has to do with loan sharking..  

This is great if you're 25 and can throw your $75 per paycheck in, but if you're sending your kid to college in the same year your mutual fund tanks, or you suffer a down market when you get laid off, you're screwed.So why not offer people something their banks and their Wall Street toadies can't.

I think sometimes that BP is like the sea and there are guppies and then there are the sharks.... 

Admittedly, I have never used hard money for anything since it is stupid expensive (like a loan shark).