I'm moving to Florida. I plan to buy a house that is 30k. Small bungelow. Just me, the wife, the dogs and a cat. At the same time I plan on buying a 55k fixer-upper.
The first I should be able to pay in cash. The second, won't get bought until my current home sells. However, that second house, once improved (by us: we do flooring, plumbing, painting and simple eletrical) should value at 160k.
Once we move to the fixed house, we'll rent the other for 500 a month. Should be doable since my wife is currently in FLA in a 300 sq/ft studio at 500 a month.
I purposely didn't want to go to the Bay for this reason. I avoid California at all cost for this reason. My long term plan is to startup a tech firm, hire college grads, train them and try to keep them with the company for 5+ years. Hard, but doable. The nice thing is they can get 45k a year, and get a pretty nice home/environment that would be hard to beat. So we'll see, but again the Bay really matters in the HN echo chamber.
Isn't it chiefly because most other forms of investment are banned or highly restricted?