Home equity rose to $85 billion in 2006.

I’m also in the same shoes as Hoa, Looking to invest 200K.

Read a lot of books.Don't listen to suede shoes GURU's.

It actually seems that the NBER is saying that it wasn’t just sub prime but also prime loans that defaulted, and the Post just to make the jump to blaming flippers exclusively. ( The study itself is behind a paywall. )“We find that real estate investors play a critical role in the rise in mortgage debt only for the middle and the top of the credit score distribution,” wrote researchers Stefania Albanesi, Giacomo De Giorgi and Jaromir Nosal in the NBER report. ” The share of mortgage balances of real estate investors rose from 20 percent to 35 percent between 2004 and 2007 for quartiles 2 and 3 of the credit score distribution.

Shoe Dog""Crush it"I try to read a little everyday.

Roses are Red Violets are blueWe welcome you to bigger pocketsthat's true.May you get pockets overflowing and rent money due.

If it's crappy as the OP described, it's just trash and will be treated with all the care of toilet paper stuck your shoe. 

And if I were in your shoes, I'd only spend 5% on down payment vs. 20%.  

Never buying xbox 360(s) or 15 pairs of shoes through High School and shoving all money into buy and hold real estate Why invest in rental properties?

There is no denying that the housing market has become much harder to access than when our great great grandpa working as a shoe salesman could afford a 4 bedroom home but the truth is that the opportunity to own a home is still very obtainable as long as you know your limits.