In markets that have not fully recovered, owners are either having to sell, get bridge and/or mezzanine financing, or put "cash in" just to re-finance the balance.

House had value 100k loss in storm , Insurance recovers the loss 100k, but you still owe money 60k. left overs are yours from your loss. 40k was not a profit but making me whole for my loss.

The sooner we get the 96% off of the couch and back to work - the sooner the economy and the USA can recover.

Here's a series of steps, following the money (cash), to show why:1 - Profit comes only AFTER you recover all the cash you put into a property.2 - If you get $10k in CF/year, but have to spend $100k to get it, it will take you 10 years to break even...all things being perfect during those 1- years (unlikely).3 - If you get $5k/year, but only have to spend $20k to get it, it will only take you 4 years to break even...and, both properties are appreciating exactly the same.4 - If you want that same $10k/year, you only need to buy 2 properties, at $20k/ea, which still would only take 4 years to break even on both properties....and you have two properties appreciating, getting you twice as much appreciation... and you still have $60k in cash unused.5 - Now, spend all $100k on $20k properties, and you now have 5 properties getting $5k/ea per year (and all 5 break even in 4 years),...for $25k/year in CF...and, 5 properties appreciating instead of just one.

I ended up scrambling back to a 9 to 5 in order to survive and have been recovering ever since.The good news is "I'm back"!

However, I also know from my AA meetings that there are a lot of recovering alcoholics in the world who have managed to put their pasts behind them and are now doing well and are successful.  

KC certainly could get hit harder than other areas and take longer to recover if/when the next bust happens (and it will happen)... but again if I'm being conservative it might be easier to buy/hold a property there for that time at half the cost of a Denver home than buying a Denver home and suffocating under the load here.I do think the midwest is going to do better over the next 40 years for a few reasons, but again it's rolling the dice.I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the "Goldilocks" phase.  

You have a huge task ahead, to recover from devastation, and you will recover!

If not, back out, fire agent, find new agent, recover earnest money, lose only the fee you paid the inspector. 

Therefore, nothing unless explicitly stated prevents her from using the real property for cash flow purposes or liquidating the property to recover capital, etc.