Trump's daddy was a big real estate developer in NYC, so he had a massive head start with daddy putting up the money for his first building.

@Akaljot CheemaPros - cash flow (if you add value), massive appreciation (if you hold long enough), best rent growth in the country (can take a so-so investment to great real quick), easy financing (banks love solid bay area apartments), expensive (this is a pro actually - high barrier to entry keeps competition low) Cons - tough landlord laws that are getting tougher every year, expensive (high price per unit vs rent received) The pros far outweigh the cons.

However my expenses are massively higher. 

I'd caution against taking on the massive liability of managing a property unless you are already a fully licensed and insured property manager, or you are looking to start a property management business (PM businesses are pretty low margin so you'd need to scale to many more units than just this one to cover your overhead/ for it to be a worthwhile endeavor). 

She passed on the area due to the massive price appreciation the area has seen the last 18+ months and I would agree there is some concern that the valuations are inflated a bit. 

Repairs actually ended up closer to $25K, but because of the massive cushion he was working with it wasn't that big of a deal.

(I'm not gonna touch on tax benefits or amortization)As for appreciation, it is my personal opinion that similar to stocks, majority of the profits are due to the Fed's massive printing of money, thus the current situation of inflation and once they stop purchasing mortgage backed securities in March, will cause a massive correction, if not the beginning of a crash. 

I am little confused that sometimes you don't buy and sell houses within the same fiscal yearI have an appointment with my CPA but before that I would like to educate myself.

But as I mentioned somewhere in this lengthy thread I think it matters what your goal is  if it's building massive wealth you absolutely need leverage.

Factors:age of propertyage of treetype of tree (a redwood has surface roots and spreads out massively, while others have a 'tap' root descending ~1/3 the height of the visible portion of the tree