I saw this as a way to avoid a potential month loss rent due to tenant vacancy.

i can only see it if you were upside down on an already owned property and you had to move and rented it to negate some of your loss

When you pay cash for a $400,000 home and rent it out, your rate of return will likely be less than 6%.You could invest in stocks and earn 7% or better.You could put the money in a high-interest savings account and earn up to 5%.I don't understand why anyone would pay cash for real estate, erasing many benefits that increase the rate of return, while exposing themselves to the risk of loss (turnover costs, bad tenants, capex, etc.). 

Grocers must eat the loss of their fresh vegetable or frozen foods during a power outage.

I would only recommend purchasing items that fall into that vision. 

Understanding the market enables you to spot good bargains and steer clear of potential loss-making regions.

You can claim to be the best guy in the world at finding and analyzing deals, but when the market turns against you, and you just went all-in, even on the best relative opportunities that market had available at the time, there is nothing you can do to prevent losses, especially if your debt has a maturity date that will force your hand.Timing the market is an interesting concept. 

If you raise 5% and lose a month you will have a net loss.

Lending and insurance are based on predictability and without question the frequency and size of losses will continue to eclipse prior records.

Then you can determine whether or not to hang on to that one or seek something somewhere else.Even the decision to move into other asset classes like equities or whatever will need you to factor in the loss of investing capital in the form of capital gains tax (plus 5 years of depreciation recapture).