I find that most people include to much contingency or fat in their numbers so they talk them self out of the deal.  

It takes "gobs" of money which he said most of the investors he knows doesn't have.I certainly respect advice from someone who went belly up in real estate -- 4 bedrooms in great areas in our city where there's a university have been renting for $1650-$2000 for some years now.

A big fat ZERO.

Pigs get fat...hogs get slaughtered.

and full belly clams doing?

i was going to suggest the old fashioned ones with a dial (only because two with the usual control boards went belly up in my own house one month after their one year warranty date and replacing the control board was going to cost over $300). 

Remember the saying- pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.  

(I never mind doing this, as my vet my deals pretty hard, and feel super confident they will not go belly-up).  

Our state law, and many others, require you to hold them in separate TRUST account so that if you go belly up, the SD's are protected and given back to tenants or the next owner of the building. 

I still suggest it to people that need that pep talk, but recommend other people when it comes to investing in real estate and actual knowledge.I don't know if that is true about not being an expert in Real Estate or anything else when he wrote (or at least published) the book.I don't believe it is in question that he did start the successful businesses (That did go belly up) that he talks about in the books and as far as I know nobody has ever questioned his contention that he started investing in RE in the 70s and retired off the passive income in the early 90s.Again he doesn't do much to tell you HOW to get to the point of starting a mutli million dollar business or a huge cash flowing rental portfolio, but I do think he did actually do those things.