Seeing this paradigm shift in the industry has made me more curious about development, and after reading several books (The Real Estate Game by William Poorvu, and Confessions of a Real Estate Entrpreneur by Jim Randle) I am very interested in moving to the development side, while using my architectural background to my advantage.My first goal (thank you for the articles BP), is to buy a 2-4 unit building in the NYC area with a first time homebuyer FHA loan, and hopefully use a 203K loan for the renovation, and use it for my first positive cash-flow property.

While part of that is due to a mix shift, since there are fewer lower-priced homes for sale, it is becoming increasingly clear that fewer buyers are able to play in the higher price ranges.

Perhaps I need to shift my neighborhood focus.I appreciate any input that has been successful for other BPers when offering on unlisted property. 

Just have to shift your mindset. 

We discounted them as the market shifted on us.

@Aaron Jannetti - In this environment you can consider putting additional cash down to cashflow; or shift your focus to value-add opportunities where you are increasing rent through cash renovations.  

Hey everyone, after shifting around my finances and returning to look for my first rental property, I am looking for a small multi-family property in a lower budget range from $125-175K (smaller % of net worth).

I've shifted my mindset from flipping to buy and hold about a year ago.

Once your income grows more than this, you'll likely want to shift your savings to the standard 401k. 

@Gaurav Raj,To make the @ work, do the following: Hold down the shift key and type @?