Something real that I can pass on to my children and ensure that they, or their future children, will never have to endure the hardships of my childhood.

Buying a condo, in my opinion, requires just as much sleuthing of the HOA as the condo itself.  

Scott shall not be considered active under the following circumstances: unemployed while seeking gainful employment, on disability from full time employment, retired from government employment, or other circumstances out of control and atypical to choosing to pursue his housing business endeavors as his sole source of primary income. 1.Should Scott choose to “actively” engage in housing as his source of employment as defined above, Scott agrees to give 25% (twenty five percent) of his net profits accrued from his active efforts during the period of marriage to wife in the case of a divorce.2.Payment of such percentage of funds shall be payable over 120 equal monthly payments, or equivalent to no greater than 10% of Scott’s New York State Adjusted Gross Income, verified annually with payments adjusted the 1st of November each year, whichever is less, to ensure no undue hardship to Scott or the business will be endured.

We will do some sleuthing, ask some folks in the building and research the foreclosure file.  

Also, timing can be key - if you list on the 20th, you get a mix of panic applicants that can't find anywhere else before they have to be out on the 30th so they'll take any unit, even if they know they can't afford it, along with professional tenants that think you'll be in a panic to place a tenant before enduring another month of vacancy and will fall for their "I can give you 1st month's rent and deposit in cash right now" pressure ploy.

A new book just came out, it's called "The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth written by the daughter of the original "Millionaire next door" and it talks about how all of us the ability to become Millionaires and takes a survey of the population and she gets statistics on how these people became self made Millionaires. 

And each strategy is going to be based off of the amount of risk you're willing to endure, just like any investment, and your return will follow. 

., all of it really are about endurance mostly. 

But I wonder what veterans think of the pain housing will endure in the next downturn?

*note – this property is in Houston Heights, which is highly desirable, BUT it has also flooded during the previous 3 "500-year floods" that Houston has endured.