not a unique story in 07 to 2010.. for every flipper that got burned there was just as many buy and hold investor that lost it all as well.there for whatever reason is this notion that buy and hold rentals will weather any storm and that just is not true.Now some markets did find with that strategy others got hammered just as bad if not worse.we were lucky here in the PNW.. our rentals did well.But if you had rentals I Vegas Phx for example there were man who bought 4 plex's in those markets that had 100% vacancy for years and investors lost them by the thousands..

We just had a local man beat to death by some kids with hammers.

That way, looking at past posts can be skimmed and identified if I feel the information is worth clicking on it.Happy day, that means that I'm not going to keep repeating posts 500 times to the flavor of the month as we get new folks hitting on the same old stuff that has been hammered away at before, Makes life easier if someone wants my opinion and much easier for me, saving my fingertips.So, thanks for your post as it caused the light to go off to the obvious.

If you are good with the hammer and know some construction you can get the ugliest house and turn it into a very nice priced gem. 2) If you get a nice amount back from your sell in NJ you can put a minimum down payment on your primary residence (again be open minded so you can get a good deal), and then you can put a 20% down payment on a rental property that way your rental pays itself off and helps you pay part of your primary residence mortgage.

Like you, my heart is set on real estate, I see many upsides, and I am to scared to swing a hammer.

There are risks of loss in all strategies, there are risks of getting hammered for violations of law, risks of being sued and market as well as financial risks and uninsured losses.

"To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail."

Personally I like my stuff in writing then after we have something going on a mutual respectful discussion then we can verbal a bit to hammer out the details and write up a final that is all complete. 

Whatever it takes to hammer the debt down.  

However, such lists may be worth it to save time establishing relationships, but you'll get slow pays and defaults over 30 days.Most methods that yield results, IMO, come from troubled loans, just prior to the hammer being lowered on a borrower.