I'm no Peter Schiff, but I can't see how the continued erosion of purchasing power is good for the Low & Middle Class in the long run.

These are subject to changes and shiftsespecially with improper drainage and erosion as we saw some evidence of.

  $9K seems like a lot of money just to share a tooth brush :). 

@robert kincaid @eric heldt I am noticing the same thing too.

But it helped my wife sleep at night, which allowed me sleep too. 

If so, you may have to look outside of California (where I live too!).

Good think you stumbled across BiggerPockets too.

We went to a local 'savings and loan' (credit union would be good too)... the key here is LOCAL.... as in they will keep the loan 'in house' so they are not as locked into someone else's criteria.

Goodlettsville also has an abundance of older ranch and country homes in desperate need of some updating, so there's some opportunity there, too.

However, these get snapped up in a second when they hit the market and there's a fairly large off-market network that sells them too.