Rental Real Estate Investment Risks?

[Premesh Purayil]

Hi! I'm new to remote Rental Real Estate Investment. I've owned rental property locally here in Cali in the past but it's been a number of years and it was only ever one at a time. I've been following the podcast for a while as well as a few others (listen money matters and passive real estate investing).

As I was discussing with my wife the idea of building a real estate portfolio in addition to our existing investment (high interest savings, stocks , 401k , IRA) I had a hard time articulating the obvious risks involved w.r.t to losing meaningful amounts of money (15-20k plus)

Im planning on starting with something turnkey for a remote property (which I have tons of questions about but that's for another post). My understanding is that if the property is properly researched and the operating budget allocates enough for vacancy and repairs ) while still cash flowing apart for the possible inability to liquidate your initial investment due to a market down turn or lack of overall appreciation. 

Seems like as long as we plan to hold onto the property for the long run (or atleast until there is meaningful amount of equity ) and we are cashflowing we should be fairly safe?