I've heard, and believe, that most of the people who burn out on owning real estate are self managing.

Bought one and in 3 years was burned out .... sold it and made a profit!

@Alex RodolitzYou dont sell them, you walk away...I see this all the time.. units burned up or some other crazy issue.. investors just leave them behind and stop paying taxes and everything....either the city will demo them in a few years or they will go to tax auction for the next investor to buy who doesnt do their due diligence..

As I understand it, if the MIL was damaged or burned down, we would not be able to rebuild it. 

Great lesson to learn from another investor.Anyone else have a story about when your ego burned you on renovations or a purchase?

Which leads to my second point: here is a recipe for crashing and burning that everyone should be familiar with because it happened repeatedly in '08-'10. 1) Buy houses with 15% down in neighborhoods that have a lot of competition for rentals and would face downward pressure on rents in a bad economy; 2) hire property managers for about 10% of the take because the houses are more than you can handle personally, 3) make sure the cash flow is below $400 a month, and preferably right around $0; 4) have few assets in the bank or liquid; 5) wait for an economic crisis.Point being, you can be on too fast a track such that when the music stops, you have no place to sit.

you could play the arbitrage game and borrow at 4 or 5 on your heloc then use those funds to invest with a really good HML in Bend that is doing short term flips probably make 10 to 12 gross and net 5% to 7% on your arbitrage..or you could just use the money for quick turn and burns.. if you have the band width to do those.. 

There is a lot to learn, you have to avoid prairie soil, you'll want to stay away from the Coliseum  Plume  (an area that experienced soil contamination) as well as sections of town that have a lot of violence but look like cheap deals (so many out of state investors get really burned). 

Addressing the problems is like trying to put out small individual fires in a forest that is burning.

One washer was so full it wouldn't even spin and the belt burned inside.