I own a small 2/1 condo that used to be part of a fourplex then they turned it into four condos and created an actual condo association.I bought it in 2012 and as far as I know the unit next to me has been vacant and under contract.It is a short sale contract and buyer is the owner of another unit, who also happen to be the condo association president.The short sale has been going on forever, since 2012, and each time I inquired there has been an issue or delay, meanwhile we are getting no monthly fee from that unit, and with only 4 units total we have been hit with several assessments just to pay insurances.Yes, seller being the condo assoc president who takes part on the payoff negotiaion with the bank is a conflict of interest.What makes this drag on for so long is the original owner is a foreigner from Australia, he died so they had to so a probate, his dad.  

Lawsuits drag on and on.

In addition, the government often does not seem to be interested in resolving things at minimum cost and may be willing to drag on the lawsuit until a judgment, as opposed to settling it early.

Too much to go wrong there.I think finding a small home that needs updating and not structural repair is a better target for your first time.Start small, get you feet wet in a few deals - then once you have some experience, you can go slay dragons.

If you are attracting so many bad applicants that they become a burdensome drag on your operations, you probably want to change your marketing to attract a set of borrowers that align more with your lending criteria.

The student loan "crisis" is an issue, but the media are making it seem like a bigger drag on the economy than it is in reality.The more likely answer is that the aggressive measures from the ECB, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Swizterland are behind the recent price movements. 

Again, your time horizon is the key here adjust with that in mind.The timing is impossible you can look for signals but still hard to pick the bottom.So, for me I pick companies that have good balance sheets just because a company has gone done does not Mean buy it, could mean it is on shaky ground could roll over and shut down.So, I pick blue chip divined stocks that have low debt good business model.If you are not going long then good luck this recession may be short or could drag on keeping profits low and sluggish, punish the stock.

As long as the property value is legitimately going down, or going up slower than it would otherwise, it seems like it would be a punishment to not be able to write off $13k per year, since there is a -$13k per year drag on the property value. 

If REIT's don't use leverage, isn't that a serious drag on the returns?

If you don’t like the price etc. or have other issues you bring it up for discussionMany instances they want a specific title company as some can be very slow and drag on a closing by not getting documents ready in time.