The other nice thing about oil is that the upside is huge as the global economy recovers and fuel consumption grows.Chris

However, it's a lot easier to recover from mistakes on unleveraged or lesser leveraged property than heavily leveraged property because that power of leverage you are using to make more ROI works both ways when you make a mistake.I screw up on a SFR and I lose a couple hundred bucks ROI a month while I fix it.

Lenders wanted to make the loan and if a buyer held on for a couple years the bank could recover their money and not suffer if things went bad.

Ivan, no idea of the circumstances of your losses and the relationships with your investors, but inexperience can take awile to recover from from.

If he agrees, then get out the paperwork, fill-in the blanks and get it signed, including closing instructions that allow you to recover your earnest money deposit if you cancel the contract without further approval of the seller.

With great rewards come great risks and at time even though these risks are calculated we tend to get blindsided by the "X" factor so I would like to hear from those who "failed" at real estate and if possible, share with us your strategy that you used to recover and become successful.

Bernanke added that a structured approach, recently proposed by the government's Office of Thrift Supervision, would allow banks to get some upside when property values recover.

But these prices appear destined to rise steeply with the economic recovery, so the opportunity will not last for too long.hmmmm, let's revisit this a year (or even two) from now ... the glut of condos on the market coupled with a very slow recovering economy should provide ample condo 'opportunties' for awhile, imo.

just one thing i'd like to add...i would be as fair with my tenants as much as possible, trying to help them recover the value of their possessions, etc.

I am afraid that by the time these homes start appreciating again, that they will have gone backwards too long to recover their losses.