It's really such a benefit to have someone of your knowledge and experience.I also wanted to comment on the point that I went through 2 catastrophes in the NYC Real Estate Market.2001 - the destruction of World Trade Centers.2007 - 2008 - The Meltdown of the Financial Centers where Ground Zero was Wall Street.These 2 catastrophes did not cause much if any slow down in the wealth building potential of NYC Real Estate for me despite owning several multi-family investments.There are various hedges that a big Metropolis like NYC offers.Detroit, being a one Industry Town (Automotive), follows the same risks that Billy Joel's "Allentown" lyrics speak about when the Steel company closed down.NYC has so many Industries, even when one, such as the Financial Crisis causes a Great Recession, even that did not lay waste the Real Estate that was bought correctly (in otherwords, soundly leveraged with reasonable loan terms and equity cushion and in good locations to protect against loss of rents, etc.)In 2005, I started a program to teach Real Estate because I felt that the Market was getting way over heated when I saw very sophisticated leverage being used by very non-sophisticated people who would not otherwise have qualified for their loans.

A good rule of thumb is $65 per year for every $10k of coverage for a catastrophic fire policy in the area.Initial Equity – As an out of state buyer I know that I have greater risk for something to go wrong (and a limited ability to successfully handle it) than somebody who is buying in their backyard.

Now let's say you buy a FOURPLEX......again....not a duplex or triplex, but a Fourplex and you OWNER Occupy it.....it appears you can evict the tenants (and put your own tenants in) if they (have been living there less than 5 years, are not over 60, are not disabled, and are not  catastrophically sick.

The Landlord shall not be liable for any damage to Tenant’s personal property arising from criminal acts, fire, storm, flood, rain or wind damage, acts of negligence of any person whomsoever, or from the bursting or leaking of water pipesIn order to be compensated for any items you lose from a fire, storm or other catastrophe, make sure you inventory all your personal belongings.

In his mind, it's either in the news because it's flooded with retail buyers or it's in the news because of natural disasters or other urban catastrophes.

None of these companies has enough cash on hand to pay for damages that we will experience from the next catastrophic Hurricane.

This should cover all but the most catastrophic conditions.

With all of your preparation you've told us about, and with your tenacity in not laying down and feeling sorry for yourself after that catastrophic event of losing your job, YOU WILL ROCK!!

I'm just glad that I was able to walk away from a potentially catastrophic 1st home purchase.

I know I'll make a bunch of mistakes as I start out so I intend to keep my deal size at a manageable scale so a bad mistake doesn't prove catastrophic for my investing career.