Did your real estate business survive the 07-08 crash?

[Michael Woodward]

@Joshua Dorkin , I wanted to ask if you could put together something structured (podcast, extended thread, book, etc) about the 07-08 real estate crash. A lot of us got burned badly during that time so it would be great to assemble something concise and specific that has stories and advice from investors that survived (or thrived), in spite of the crash, that we can use as actionable steps to fortify our current business plans.

Right now I'm only doing flip projects because it limits my risk. I'm in and out of a project in 3 to 4 months which means I don't have to worry about major market corrections.....but I really want to buy and hold some properties. I've heard a lot of stories from people that "had it made" with enough passive rental income to spend their days on the beach or the golf course, that eventually lost everything when the market collapsed.

I don't want to spend 5 or 10 years building up a portfolio of properties only to see it obliterated by a serious market correction. My business model wasn't prepared for what happened in 08 so I had to close my investing business and fall back on my engineering degree. I want to make sure that I"m smarter this time around so that doesn't happen again.

What do you think? How about the rest of the BP community? Do you want to participate in this kind of thing? I can offer some advice on how NOT to structure your business (for anyone that's not sure how to fail) but it would be great to hear from those of you that did well during that time....especially those that held rentals. I would really appreciate it. Thanks!