That's what I would imagine most people do.   

From my perspective, I want to invest in places where I can imagine myself living in and having a good life, so I started googling best places to live in the USA, and found https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live.US news has done some extensive research for 125 metro areas across the country.

Easy to rent as it’s a prime location, and if you can make it a 1/1 layout wise that’d be a good value add, I’d imagine. 500 sq ft is plenty to make a 1/1, as long as the layout and flow aren’t compromised.

I can’t imagine buying there from a distance, but if you live nearby or can drive there it’s a good market I think.

Some of the lenders can chime in if they have seen it work differently, but basically that is why you don't see this as often as you would expect in Oakland/SF/Berkeley.I had a client working on one in SF for a condo and we were going to make it work until the attorney couldn't guarantee it happening within a 6 month period, which as you can imagine, doesn't boad well.

Can you imagine living with your boss? 

Imagine an investor who has a goal to become wealthy and focuses all his efforts on maximizing appreciation and equity. 

While it might be hard to imagine all of the variable turning negative at the same time, it is a stress test. 

Imagine you have $200K to invest. 

I look at every single item in the pro forma and imagine that it is complete BS, and see if I can challenge it.