[quote=peterb]Consensus on this site may seem fairly negative but the residential RE investor world is not. I follow several RE investor blogs and groups that actually meet in person on a regular basis…they’re very much in a “buy” mode. I attended a meeting last week that was standing room only for about 300 people. I was on a conference call about 3 weeks ago that had 150 people on it. The message and the thought was very much about scooping up the $150K to $250K homes as rental units. And from what I could gather, with relatively low down payment loans. The numbers dont leave a lot of room for staying cash flow positive if they have to lower rents. [/quote]

Peter, you are one of the most bearish posters and you have to admit that there are many investors looking into taking advantage of the public’s fears. I’ve taken your advice lately and looked into some of the websites you mentioned a while back. The “buy” mode that investors are in is exactly the floor I was referring to, they want the scardeycats of the world to be scared and they will gladly rent to them now and sell to them in a few years. I’m holding off for now on my rental unit plans but I can say that some markets are more ripe than others, especially here. I have two relatives in escrow for rental untis with a 40% cash flow cushion, trying to stay under the 150k mark and only looking at stuff well below 100x rent multiplier, specifically 70x or 80x. I can;t say that they are wrong. These are people with no mortgages, who pay cash for rentals, smart people, people in the game for many cycles, people I respect and people that can buy and sell me many times over. Everytime I call them, they are busy buying another property. I’m left with the belief that in the next two years, the smart money goes “all in” and the scared money curls up in the fetal position on the floor and cries.