SD Realtor: thanks for your reply. I have no experience; goal is to make it a good long-term investment. I am not looking to buy now, I just think that opportunities may come up in the next 3 years or so. I think that real-estate is a favored asset class in terms of tax (federal, and California’s prop 13), it’s a good inflation hedge, so a good entry point makes real estate a good long-term investment. But I can’t deal with the hassle of managing rentals. I’m thinking that 2 bedroom condos/townhouses in neigborhoods like UTC probably are the easiest to rent out. Probably too early for me to think about this.