But how do you prevent it from happening, or at least catch the person? 

However, if cash or credit is preventing that we funded a flipper last year who got started by cold calling doctors/lawyers in the phone book.    

My wife and I have been wanting to invest for a while now but our nomadic life prevented it.

The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments(maintain your property, etc) - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

Just here seeing what others are doing to make me more streamlined and maybe prevent some mistakes.

Is there anything I could possibly do to prevent this?

So just have a plan to pay it back and that will prevent you from getting caught on the rate.Feel free to tag me with any questions. 

Or does the "as-is" prevent us to walk away, no matter what the findings of the home inspection discovers?

@John Morehead  Normally I would say someone shouldn't be entering into a contract to purchase something as large as a hotel unless they have intentions of going through with the purchase of the hotel.I know that whenever I represent the Seller of anything such as a hotel, I put specific language in the contract that would prevent a buyer from then flipping the hotel to another buyer.So essentially, in cases such as my clients, you would NOT be able to wholesale the hotel.I think that if you're dealing with any semi-sophisticated Sellers, you're going to find similar results.

I did not know, living in Florida, about the  California Foreclosure Prevention Laws which have increased the time and the monetary cost of foreclosing on property in California.