Must be devastating to lose all the savings from many years of hard work.

I wound up losing it all!

I've put in my leases that any wiring changes must be submitted with a drawn plan or they'll lose security.

And for the reminder of the flexibility real estate offers to parents, that's such a huge thing for me to keep in mind...it'd be so much harder if I was still working for the man, lol, and I'd lose all this precious time with my baby boy.I'm also glad you mentioned finding social groups, because I've been meaning to do that anyway for a different reason, and I totally forgot!  

Just hoping to start with my first investment property in that area(or somewhere around there) and don't want to lose my shirt on my first deal.  

Most of all, you can't force a non-deal to be a deal... you make (or lose) most/all of your money when you buy! 

We end up returning $1000 - $1500 in excess materials when we do the final cleanup and recoup some costs.  

It's better to start slower and make money, than trying to go to fast and losing money.

It sounds like a horror story but I learned a lot on invaluable lessons and didn't lose my shirt on the deal.

If I break even or even lose a bit on the first deal, I can live with that as long as I learn something to make the next one go better.