Buying rental properties that are cash flow positive from day one in northern california. They pay between 12-18% per year when bought in cash.

Do you have a link to a website or something that sells good rental properties? I have been looking into buying a CA condo to rent out, but all the ones that I look at have ridiculous association fees like $1,500 or $2,000 per month. How the hell are you supposed to make a profit if you are paying $2,000 per month in association fees and then taxes, property management fees, and all of that other stuff on top of it?

That sounds pretty interesting. Would you walk us through how you do that? (Or maybe you blog about it someplace?) You seem to be in Israel, is it hard to find properties in Cali from there? (Maybe you use an agent?)

I am able to continue buying because my dad is able to check out the properties and also meet potential tenants.

I find properties through Redfin, then send listings to our agent (who is practically useless except for the fact that she can gain access to the keys of the unit). Once we identify something good we put it on craigslist to see how much we rent we can get. If it has good demand, well buy it. We go back to craigslist to find tenants (and contact the ones that have already emailed us).

As for HOA, the most we pay is $300 a month. We bought one house for $115,000 and rented it for a year to a section 8 tenant for $1580. Be careful when dealing with section 8, they aren't the best tenants, but they have the most steady rent checks.

Swiss Francs, Silver, and investing in foreign stocks (Brazil, India). Mostly the later now.