Never got into hotels though.  1996 - a fourplex .  2001 - an 8-unit apartment building.  2003 - a fifty-unit complex.  2006 - a 20-unit complex ( which turned out to be a loser at the top-of-the-market price we paid, and ate our lunch for 10 years ). 

I knew i'd seen this just a bit ago:  a TED talk, "While financial crashes, recessions, earthquakes and other extreme events appear chaotic, Didier Sornette’s research is focused on finding out whether they are, in fact, predictable.

Due to all that happened with my husband the added time span ate up much of our profits.The house in Capistrano Beach just finished up, and is now on the market.

Let us pause to remember the poor sailor who, standing in a captains home, ate one in the kitchen, thinking it was an onion.

I ate crayons as a 6174.

Just ate dinner and already tons of very useful responses!

I wrote a cheque because the bank dropped the ball on the mortgage paperwork twice and asked for a 5-day extension the second time.The bank later righted themselves and "cheerfully" {well, maybe not quite} advanced the mortgage (80% LTV, 25-year amort, 5-year term @2.9%) and ate all additional disbursements and expenses we incurred.

Purchase price 147KListed for 299K, sold for 285 (went under contract for 290 but dropped it another 5K at buyer request after the appraisal just to get out of the deal)Home Depot credit card: 10K (appliances, fixtures and other things we picked out and purchased ourselves rather than having GC use typical builder grade stuff, also husband did some of the work himself so bought his own materials)Brought 40K of our own cash to the closing table, loan total when paid back was 185 (original loan 175 plus 10K in accrued interest, 12 month balloon loan so we did not have to make payments during the rehab, which helped a lot with cash flow, also loan had rehab costs folded in so for the most part we paid our guys out of the loan and not our own pockets)So (numbers are round): 285 sale price - 185 (loan payback) - 40 (cash we brought to closing) - 10 (Home Depot card) - 10 (closing costs) = 40K profitWork done: insulation and vinyl siding (this ate 18K of rehab budget but was unavoidable as cedar shakes were disintegrating), converted to natural gas heat (ducts already in place, changed out electric hot air blower to gas one and gas company ran the gas from the street for free), replaced AC compressor, new water heater, two new bathrooms, replacement windows, new appliances but left the wood cabinets b/c they were in perfect condition and I could not justify painting/replacing them, new kitchen backsplash, removed wall between kitchen and dining room, wood laminate flooring throughout except for new carpet in downstairs den, painted the deck/railings, new garage doors, one new slider, all solid wood interior panel doors, of course fresh paint and new light fixtures throughout.dining roomThere was moisture damage downstairs from bank not winterizing and pipes bursting...thanks, bank.Hauled out enormous old woodstove and broke up ugly old hearth and left good flue for someone to add new pellet or woodstove to if they want to, we figured not everyone wants a woodstove and this way the buyer can decide to add one back if desiredBathroom off downstairs den, chose a walk in shower for variety, hosing off dog or muddy children, disabled access, etc. 

The building that is in Year 2 should have been really positive, but I had a driveway replacement the city got on my case about so that ate up most if not all of my positive cash flow for year 2.  

You may have to plug off the line from either the water meter or well supply.On the other hand, if the compressor runs and runs and never builds pressure (we make our adapter with a tee fitting and pressure guage on the side of the tee so we can monitor the line pressure), then you either have an open valve or plumbing damage.