I agree that 8 to 20 units out of your area can be a disaster especially what investors tend to buy which is C class properties in C class areas because they want to buy at 40k or 50k a door.If you were buying 10 units at 100k a door on almost a new product in an affluent area that is a different animal to own from afar.Affluent tenants income tends to be less unstable than tenants you will deal with in lower income type units.

What I'm really looking for is advice on what other investors in town are doing given the current state of our economy (recession), the unstable fiscal climate at the state government and loss of oil jobs which are now spilling into the broader economy.

The contractor also sounds a bit unstable--you said he violated a restraining order and got thrown in jail?

Brownsville and East New York are still far too unstable to invest in.

This is a critically unstable situation.

The former would be a little more unstable, as you can go from 3 deals in a day to 3 deals in a summer, but there are always going to be houses bought and sold no matter where you are.

In addition most floors looked like a windy day at sea with undulating floor coverings.I consider weekly cash payments as a sign of unstable tenants with under the table incomes - - and I'll pass on the property regardless.

This made me think that this might be an unstable current relationship given that my tenants were moving in together on such short notice and it ended up being true...the woman broke the lease 3 months later and the man couldn't afford the rental without her and he broke the lease after 10 months of trying to manage on his own.

The thing is Christchurch right now really un stable and now there are recent report big EQ its about to hit NZ again.My dad is an architect by profession but due to his ego like many grand parents out there think with their pass exp they think they know everything.

Mostly though the big increase was due to the ridiculous (and in my mind unstable) market growth in the Toronto core and the surrounding GTA.