Just a few years later, property owners were under water after the economy collapsed.

Usually, only heating oil USTs associated with commercial properties are regulated. thus, most home heating oil tanks may and often are taken out of service without any oversight from state regulators.Second- the rules that are in effect for heating oil tanks are usually less stringent than for diesel or gasoline tanks since heating oil tends to thicker and may not migrate as far. as a result, many states just require tanks to be cleaned out. they may also require the tanks to be filled with sand or concrete to prevent collapse. but sampling may not be required.Third- the key to determining if a tank has leaked is to collect soil samples from around and beneath the tank (groundwater also if groundwater is shallow). another quick way to see if a tank is leaking is to "dip" it with a stick that has a paste that turns color in the presence of water. generally, if water has gotten into a tank, it can mean oil has leaked out of the tank (although a certain amount of condensation may be present even where there is no leak so this is not a infallible test).Fourth- if there is currently a tank in the basement, ask the owner if there used to be a buried tank (a/k/a underground storage tank).Fifth, If the tank has impacted the soil, the cleanup generally varies from $25K to $50K though the costs will depend ont he depth of the contamination. i once had a home with a heated pool that had pressurized piping and used diesel. the contamination went down 40 feet and the consultant went crazy excavating the soil to the tune of $400K!!!

If the deal collapses and I would lose everything, I'm out.

I am looking at starting a wholly owned LLC owned by my sub S corporation, then hope to transfer real estate into it and take notes back, then collapse the Sub S leaving the LLC owning everything. 

Steal Industry, auto manufacturing, the facilitating things to these like coal mining, the decapitation of these industries in the US has left a trail of devastated towns and collapsed markets who have NOT come back and have no prospects of ever coming back to there former glory as the "thing" that put them there, is gone. 

I've been reading articles saying Canadian housing is overvalued since 2010 and that the bubble in Australian housing would collapse soon (that was in 2010).

No mortgage would help me weather a storm if a bad renter or economic collapse set in  

FEMA calculates that, across the region, something on the order of a million buildings—more than three thousand of them schools—will collapse or be compromised in the earthquake.

From a logical perspective it's gotta be this way, otherwise the best strategy becomes max leverage all the time no matter what and the currency collapses.

Look up my history, look back to what I was WARNING early into covid, of no collapse, of no don't wait for some BS "reset" buy now or cry later.