For example, city of Austin has some rediculous energy efficiency requirements as well as ever-changing codes that take effect on properties with an ownership change regardless of how old the building is. 

The solution, in the short run, is to throw the baby out with the bath water, until which time an economic catalyst is generated by commercial interests, whether industry, technology or natural resources capitalists.

I suppose though if you're generating cash flow from the rental and building equity in it too but still paying rent for your own living, it's still not a bad situation. 

A lot of investors and wholesalers put a lot of energy into doing volume...40+ deals a month.

How many really hot leads could you generate for $2,000?

My wife and I are focusing on this currently and have found that we can generate $800 cashflow on 250K investement with 20% down.

Loving the energy here.

My long term goal (10-15 years) is to achieve financial independence by generating approximately $12k a month in cash flow.

I have two houses (4 units total) that are generating a good monthly return but I know I can get a lot more bang for my buck going south.For example the average MLS sale price this month in Calgary is $482,113. 

My latent passion for real estate investing was recently rekindled and here I am ready to dive in and start creating my own deals.I've been getting out looking at open houses to get a sense of my local market, crunching some numbers, and reaching out to people to start building up some contacts in the residential real estate world.My ideal path is to do some rehabs to generate some more capital and then move to buy/holds.