When the lender takes a hit you WIN.You can also go to the court house to find which houses are in foreclosures - this gives you early information even before the auction company gets the go ahead to sell at public auction. 

@Jonathan Baptiste It is too difficult to bill back people with rent by room style of house hacking, you will be unable to make it "fair" for everyone since some people take more showers than others, some people cook more than others, so how would you bill back those renters, or if one renter is gone for two weeks visiting family?  

The basic steps would be: 1) Buy Land- (up front cost) make sure you can build what you want ahead of time by talking with an experienced engineer/architect familiar with local codes and regulations.

Thanks @Todd DexheimerI think that at the end of the day they will at least be able to salvage the initial investment,  also the returns of the past couple of years were not sustainable and even if its a total loss I am still way ahead.

I do believe that if you pick the right conservative syndications, it's an easy way to diversify, maintain a low risk profile and come out slightly ahead of the market over time.

Go right ahead... burn your money, others have more common sense! 

Home insurance won't cover a lot of system failures like electrical.Home warranties are designed to make the warranty provider money; they are slow to respond, quick to reject claims, charge you a trip fee for every visit, use the lowest-cost vendors that provide quick-fix solutions, and are generally not worth the paper they are written on.

Just to add on to my last comment...Ask the contractor to redo the estimate with more detail and if he/she balks or stalls then find another contractor...that is a bad indicator for the $37K job he/she has ahead of them!

NC has been great to me - and I love visiting!

My first and only market as a newbie was Cincinnati but I’m no longer interested after a site visit.