Buy for cash flow, not for appreciationDon't be over-leveraged & have long term fixed debtHave adequate cash reservesMost investors who I've heard talk about losing their shirts in 2008, it was for one or more of these three reasons.They were told to invest because "real estate only goes up" (buying for appreciation)They were 90-100% leveraged - which was fine before the downturn, now they're mortgage payment was higher than anything a tenant could pay (especially when so many lost their job).

Yes.I understand why a lawyer would not want to give his stamp of approval, but this "subject-to" technique is used frequently.

If it's not in a decent location you can lose your shirt to break ins and theft. 

as @Dorene Mangels-Bacalhau mentioned, if you are doing anything structural the building department will want an engineers stamp on the plans whether an architect draws them or not. where I live the lumber yard where I buy my materials provides that for free in house to contractors who they do business with. they do this because it's good business, they do the math and I buy from them. also they are much cheaper than the big box stores and actually have a clue which I've never seen at the big orange store.

She initialed the notice and I took a photo with a time stamp as well.

I need a slumlord t-shirt. 

Losing your earnest money deposit is better than losing your shirt every month on an investment. 

The Memphis market definitely isn't for the faint of heart and its easy to loose your shirt there!

I've realized it's time to hire someone to handle our envelopes.For the person we hire, the letters will be folded, and the envelopes will already be addressed when I hand these items over to them.They'll just need to put the letters in the envelopes and stamp them.  

Also, these are all socialist countries with negative rates-simply buying outside of your own country is more regulated than for us here (at least for now...).I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I agree with the “Dollar Milk Shake” theory-that is, the US is the cleanest dirty shirt, and the (reported) $13 TRILLION in foreign, dollar denominated debt will create an inflow of money to the US...in my mind, that keeps us in the 0%-0.5% range like we see 10 yr treasuries at right now.