"Recession-durable RE investing for non-accredited investors" How do you defend against recessions, without sacrificing ambition?

There is a lot of "retirement money" down here, and given that many of these people lost a good chunk of their retirement in the recession, they are always looking to put money in real estate... at least with MY experience. 

If anything it taught me that I need to do this 15-20 more times, and buying during the recession was KEY in the success of this property.

Also, values have come back or close to pre recession values.

Of course everyone feels it is expensive, but when you look at the historical data you can see that the percentage of income spent on housing is at a historic low - partially thanks to low rates.When looking at the last 5 economic recessions, home prices have been holding strong or going up in almost every single recession, one time we lost a couple points - but nothing like we have seen 2010, which in all fairness was a mortgage and housing crisis, that became a recession.In conclusion, I do not see a scenario, where real estate prices are dropping more than a few percent.

@Amanda G. we will usually frame out the firebox and drywall it about 6-10 inches recessed from the front.

That's probably true, but most of the area has still not entirely recovered from the Great Recession--only recently have home prices in most begun to approach 2005 levels, and those prices are still way off from 2007/right before the collapse.

Our $21K little Great Recession house in Garner fits in with Lori's philosophy... but many of these "deals" take a lot of time and effort (now that GR is long gone) and some investors don't like the time/money tradeoff.

Your WORST case scenario is then that a second once-a-century Great Recession hits (...), a bunch of idiots "strategically default" and allow their homes to go into foreclosure, and those foreclosed upon people are your new tenant applicants.There are a lot of BP members on here that purchased in 2007, rode the storm for a decade, and are now sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity. 

It does fantastic during expansionary times and suffers greatly during recessions.2) If you are looking to get into the city proper, that is a whole other discussion with lots of risks, but there are plenty of good suburbs. 3) Understand how property taxes are calculated and forecast properly what yours will be after purchase.