Even if rent falls, let's see what happens

Use va_landlord's house for example, he can rent market rate at 1700/month, getting about 270/month positive cash flow. The worst case is a big recession, from history in DC area, we learned that rent won't drop even during a recession. Rent actually rose from 1991 to 1998, that time was one of the worst recession in which government was shrinking. Now, let's be conservative and assume that the rent may go down to 1400/month. va_landlord can still maintain cash flow even. When price gets this low, it's really hard to fail.