Insurance is catastrophic situations, not for a sub-$1000 repair.

It's a much better route that just excitedly jumping in & experiencing the catastrophic "...Oh No!!!..."  

It doesn't have to be a fire, it can be any incidents or major catastrophe that render the house uninhabitable and assuming that it is not the tenant's fault.

Barring catastrophe, I'll never see the finished product.It's because I just don't have the time, but most of the time it's about trust.Just have your contractor send you some pictures of progress if you are worried and you really don't have the time.

What if I had a medical catastrophe and had to sell or refinance to cover medical bills?  

It's also possible that the building will go down in value, which could be a real catastrophe because the note would be due and there wouldn't be enough equity to refinance -- it could force you to become a motivated seller.

* What strategies are you undertaking, with so many properties, to avoid a catastrophic failure of your empire?

Because I believe that real estate investment would be utterly catastrophic for Charles, I took the strong approach.

If you have a successful job, then we want your career to continue and not get side tracked (aka financial catastrophe).  

If your buying a nice property there shouldn't be to many catastrophic costs coming up soon.