upbeat promotions of a rosy lifestyle in real estate flipping and their exclusive mentored shortcuts to deals ("win big!"

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who sells (or promotes) a property that an investor buys.

There are many good books out there on the subject, but asking investors directly helps to supplement that knowledge.Having invested out-of-state since 2004 myself, I have to agree with you that most of California doesn't make a lot of sense from an investment perspective.

If you are in a job where raises are structured based on time and or promotions , take 1/2 of every raise and start / add to to an investment account.  

It will require areas that are homogeneous to accept low income housing, in order to promote "diversity" and "inclusive communities": http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/PublicPolicy/Af...

So in my day here is how it went.LA promoter and there are plenty on this site.. they promote and sell properties for turn key companies throughout the mid west and south east and rust belt.Hard money lender puts them into title .. then the buyer gets a rate term refi and has no money out of pocket and is counting on his or her 100 a month cash flow and they buy their max say 4 props because they can't afford anything in CA.So now the cash flow does not materialize as advertised and the properties are negative cash flow ( happens more times than not) remember they bought the properties through CA based marketers so they are in essence paying the very top of the market they have put little or nothing down so they have max debt.So now the houses are negative 100 a month each and or there is a major turn over cost say 5 to 7k very common and the no money down deal became out of pocket deal and a money bleeder and they will never amass any truth wealth as the houses on top of it all do not appreciate as even those that sell them will agree....So bottom line if your going out of state you MUST be ultra careful not to fall in this trap and buy top quality property you buy low end dogs and you will be living with the dogs over time:)from my point of view people that live in high priced areas like CA need to do whatever they can to first buy a home to live in.

I bought down there myself a couple years ago and now work with another development (who is 10,000x better than the one I bought in) helping to promote Nicaragua as a country and of course the development.

Sure- i own one rental house free and clear, cost $80,000. i am 10 years away from retirement and will need to supplement my income with another $3,000 a month . i have $60, 000 cash to invest now.

You don't have to go off the word of the seller or promoter by any means. - Lastly, I've never known of a turnkey buyer who went out and did it all on their own afterwards.

Supplementing with flips, new construction or some other form of REI, keeps the interest there and actually pays the bills without having to use your cash flow to live and hence, killing the golden goose.