I thought I was Donald Trump and invested at the wrong time and lost everything in the downturn.I survived Leukemia (for now) and looking to try and rebuild my wealth.

@Scott Patterson @Don Harris Thanks for the tips!

The dealer can't survive with no customer in a week or two. 

My firm Brown Harris Stevens Commercial RE is based out of Garden City but we have extensive experience and brokers working in all Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Hi,I am looking for some contractors and handymans in Fort bend county and Harris county, Houston, sugarland, Richmond, any recommendations, success stories?

Any agent who messes up leases won't survive in the business.There may well have been more to the story that you didn't know.

The answer is different based on the situation.If you're leveraged with insufficient reserves and your only option is to flip the properties (re: these are negative cash flow properties) then you're screwed in a market down turn.If you're leveraged with sufficient reserves and you can only flip then as long as the downturn doesn't outlast your reserves you'll still be limping but  you'll come out of the situation with a significant but survivable loss.If you're leveraged, have good reserves but you're cash-flowing your property (it's a buy and hold/rental) - then as long as  you have renters you don't really give a crap about what the market does.And yes, you can de-risk by owning free and clear but you're giving up one of the biggest advantages of real-estate : The ability to leverage.By owning free and clear your returns (cash-on-cash) will look horrendous - and at this point other non real-estate investments will start to make more sense.That's my 2-cents anyways

Establish a good emergency fund to ensure that if all their investments fail and they have no income (worst case) they can survive for six months minimum. 

I did it the hard way in alot of ways but have managed to survive the growing pains.

Hi @Harry Marsh Thanks for the note!