One friend had a hard drive crash that wasn't recoverable and the other had a virus that corrupted everything and wasn't fixable.To my knowledge, no large cloud based service has ever lost data for any substantial time period. 

sounds like you want to be the Capitan of your own ship,, You may want to layer these dollars like a pyramid.base is ultra low risk then middle is medium risk and top is aggressive risk growth.Notes done right can be very good and passive.. there are any number of good syndicators out there.. suggest ones that have worked through a crash or been at it a decade or more. 

His partner (lives across the country) lost all his retirement in the last crash, so I assume he needs the money.

Dallas real estate prices, for example, are now higher than it was before the 2099 crash.

I currently own CHK (high risk play) and XLE (value play), and am looking for another angle.Hopefully this first creates some great buying opportunities, and then some appreciation.I always found it humorous at the end of the movie "The Big Short" after Michael Burry just made his investors a 489% return, they were calling and shouting at him for buying stocks when the market had just crashed.  

I understand many folks have much if not all of their net worth tied up in equity in their personal resi.just hate to see one tap that equity buy a bummer property .. and create a mess for themselves.that happened a TON in the years leading to the great 08 crash..

Wait for the next crash then buy in LA when everyone else is talking about the american economy never recovering.

In addition, clearing the land exposes it to winds and removes the roots that hold up adjoining tree; in the winter storms, this could send a massive tree crashing down on my property, potentially destroying the cabin that I've spent the last year rehabbing with my own sweat equity.

My company transferred me to the Bay Area in 2008, just as the economy was crashing down around us.

:@Jay HinrichsI would certainly be interested if the property was in my area.I did a few thousand of these projects pre 08 its how turn key was sold when you had a robust refi industry. when refi died and went through the pearly gates in 08 that changed everything.. and thats one reason RE prices crashed the way they did.this worked best for out of area investors who did not want to take the uber risk with rehab and all the work it takes to try to build this mystery team..