Real Estate Investing Risks

[Edward A.]

Caught up on some reading this weekend and I checked out the book the Millionaire Real Estate Investor - written in 2005. A great book and very inspiring to read. What I am curious about and it raised an interesting question for me was assuming you read this book in 2005 and got very excited about real estate and started investing then the market downturn a few years later - where are you now? Did you manage to get through this downturn? The reason I am asking is that I am starting out to invest and may make my first purchase soon. I am reviewing my risks, costs, etc. and although my guess is real estate is more stable these days you never know. But, I want a plan for the long term and am curious about what strategies help a REI weather the bad times?