I don't invest there simple because it's geographically too far for me to feel comfortable doing so and I personally like to buy STR's where I'm going to visit them at least 3-4 times per year if possible...which I wouldn't be able to pull off from California to Florida.  

I just learned of this yesterday so here is a brief explanation for those who don't know what Buy and Bail is/was...A buy and bail transaction is where a consumer decides to rent out their primary residence to take advantage of buying a bigger, or better home for less than what they owed on their current home.

You can't get a better explanation for why this deal is always fake than the answer from @Bjorn Ahlblad.

Folks who aren't overly familiar with equity events, return metrics, investing in general, etc. and see the equity event as a negative since dollar amount goes down, often like this explanation as it clicks with them a bit better.

Thank you for your thorough explanation and for sharing your experience!   

Security deposit amountYou can find plenty of examples by searching for "tenant estoppel certificate doc" or exchange "doc" with "pdf" for more options.Here is an example and explanation: https://eforms.com/rental/estoppel-certificate/Some have a lot of legal jargon but this document does not need to be so detailed.

Excellent explanation guys, I have to do this to everyone that overhears me talking about real estate investing.

They will not loan you money--it doesn't matter that they have a full explanation.

This will help show me how everything really works.Or is there one good link on here that has all the formula and explanations of them?

I have learned that alot of them are very nice and think I have a wonderful idea and if I were in their geographic area they would give me the money.