You will want to define your goals for RE investing.

One thing you might find as you get deeper into various asset groups and with time/accumulation is that you don't necessarily have to wait for broad market crashes to find attractive opportunities.There can be groups or individual securities that are depressed while the remainder of the market is steaming upward at full speed.

@Darren Hicks - can I ask how you're defining CF?

Define your short and long-term goals. 

I'm sure many of you can remember the Global Financial Crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2009 due to the government’s encouragement of broad homeownership induced banks to lower their rates and lending requirements,5 which spurred a home-buying frenzy that drove the median sales price of homes up by 55 percent from 2000 to 2007.BAs a result, Banks were handing out loans like candy to anyone and everyone, combined with the explosion of the United States run-up in housing prices fueled by demand, speculation, and exuberant spending to the point of collapse.This crisis damaged financial institutions globally which led to a loss of more than $2 Trillion from the global economy! 

Pretty short intro and a very broad question.So, an equally broad answer - network:)

Also, as a passive investor, can anyone give me the broad strokes of any tax benefits they may also be entitled to similar to a solely owned piece of real estate or are those deductions pretty much off the table? 

This can change and drop lower based on loan amount, property type, credit score and other factors but for the sake of making it a broad generic scenario your max LTV would be 75%.2) If you are looking to get a conventional loan than as long as you have 2 years tax returns that show rental income you should be able to use the leases on the newly acquired properties to help offset the mortgages as opposed to just counting them against you in your DTI.

There's tons and tons of investors in cleveland so it's to broad of something to request. 

First rule of suing, sue everyone so you will definingly be named in the suit especially since you know about it.