. :)additionally I learned this the hard way as well in Charleston SC I re did a 4 bed historic house to the studs out.. and built another 4 bed new construction on the back of the lot.. 850k into the deal with financing and cash.. we missed the move in date for collage kids because that is the highest and best use of those areas the rooms rent for 900 to 950 each.. 

I agree with Jay it could make sense in certain situations if you are buying in an area with rent growth or has high historic appreciation .As rents go up you won’t be negative $200 a month for too long .

Particularly the investor, sorry, speculative gambler crowd.Historically low interest rates, historically high house prices, 3-10 year loan terms with 25 year amortization periods, not something I would touch with a 10 foot pole.

Based upon some of the comments, I feel the need to revisit REI 101 ... investing in RE has 4 profit centers:1) Appreciation (both forced and market)2) Cash flow (which changes over time)3) Mortgage Pay Down (ammortization)4) Tax SavingsThe above should be indisputable fact, the conclusions drawn below are my opinion based on 15 years of REI experience.If you are only looking at 1 out of 4 of these things, and you are only assessing it for day 1 and not the entire lifetime of the investment (or assuming that it will stay constant without validating that assumption with long term historical data or some other source), then you are NOT looking at the entire investment picture.The best way IMO to combine all of these things into a single analytical framework is to project out the financials making reasonable and conservative assumptions (based on long term average historical trends and/or actual data where available) and compute the IRR.

. • A population exceeding 1M will have sufficient historical data so you can evaluate trends.

So Cal market is very different from a majority of markets in the US.Here are some of my thoughts:VA loan I believe implies house hack.Appreciation has historically created wealth while cash flow is used to pay the bills. 

Was the massive loss of life taken into account when figuring out historical wages?

All the above 'just math' you describe are valid, if you rephrased your post to say 'Guaranteed Historical 21% Annual Appreciation'

@Richard Mace virtually anyone that bought anything in 2008-2012 has made a killing as prices were at all time historic lows after the crash.

Historically, that’s why syndications have a pretty spotty reputation in the industry.