If I put all of my eggs in one basket (Florida in this case), paid off property and a hurricane blows everything away, FEMA is nowhere to be found and the insurance companies take years to pay what little claims they actually do pay, I suffer through it in a blown out house.

Alderman Proagative....interesting...Why Chicago continues to make it harder to be an investor is mind-blowing....why not make it easier to buy a 2-4 unit property to drive home ownership?

Look at all the population growth, job growth, and companies moving/developing here - it's absolutely blowing up and Columbus is one of the hottest markets in the entire US. 

I work on the disposition side of wholesaling and the amount of inflated ARV's I see blows my mind.

I don’t think an agent will be blowing advertising money on a $30k house in Detroit as a matter of fact the selling agent doesn’t even show the home they call it “drive-by” showing.

With him being a Real Estate guy, I cant see him doing something that would put a huge blow to the industry.Maybe the majority of our building materials is produced domestically?

Ben,Assuming the PO isn't blowing smoke and the mortgagee is OCWEN;  then I suggest you look at the following ideas. 

in other words, if the roof blows off a FedEx building, do they typically get a loan to replace it, or are the investors assessed? 

A major repair can blow your entire budget.

If I had 500k to blow, I would probably do the same.