But, is it because the market in an unknown state of prices of whether homes are going to be foreclosed on or not?

In these recent years I've seen top industry performers just flat out leave TV because they couldn't take the pressure of all the unknown factors. 

I am starting my real estate investment journey and value insights from the experienced. We can read all we want in books and blogs, but human, real insight and experiences sometimes provide most beneficial. Any insig...

There may be fire sales at some unknown date in the future, but if I find a deal that works for my numbers RIGHT NOW, I'll take that over what may or may not happen 1, 2, or 150 years from now. 

I’ve seen properties at the closing table suddenly have reserve requirements sky rocket & LTV’s decline (more money at the closing table) just because of the unknowns moving forward. 

There is a lot of unknown things but I would love to leverage experienced investors who have done this successfully.

Then add 10%-20% contingency reserve to that price for the "unknown items" that are discovered during rehab. 

@Nazakat Hossain how do you balance this versus the value of your time, risks of the unknown, assumptions of liability etc?

You cannot plan around or effectively counter those things, because again they are unknown. 

This neighbor unknown to my mother, had built a chicken coop, play area, parks his vehicles on the lot, installed a garden and to top it off - built a wire fence around my Mom's lot!