I am new to this concept, but for my entire life have been told that real estate investing is a must for a secure portfolio. However, with the history of the market and some of the new happenings and lendings, my ques...

You can invest in low volatile stocks with high dividends and use a covered call options strategy to make above average returns. 

I have one friend, who invested in construction excavators for 10 years, he put all his cash and family cash in excavator during this period, he was gaining big ROI around 30%.Unfortunately, after this period finished, the excavators industry collapsed during the last 5 years till this, and his asset now evaluated by 80% less, because there is a lack of demand and huge supply.This could happen to any sector/asset, any assets have a good time and bad time, real estate, fortunately,it is less volatile/risky than construction service, but that does not mean it is risk-free, this is why economists support diversify in different sectors. 

Agree, much volatility in the debt markets due to the uncertainty. 

4 months is a LIFETIME in a declining or volatile market.The lender probably wanted the appraiser to weigh more recent properties data more heavily even though it's not an exact match.Remember on exit the rehab sale price you have to account for market changes.When buying this property did you look at the last 6 months data and get statistics on pricing drop averages??

The population is increasing and that will mean higher unemployment and higher unemployment will mean higher spending on social programs and less spending on infrastructure and activities that result in economic development.However, it could also have a positive impact on the US real estate as Chinese economy becomes unstable, Chinese people will look to invest in US for more security and real estate is one investment vehicle that Chinese people understand and love.In fact, I am working with some Chinese investors that are looking to invest in my local market to get more secure and stable returns than the volatile returns they get in China.

You're subject to the whims of the RE market - your equity position is volatile. 

:help: Is the market truly that volatile?

You can also tap into it to invest in other properties.With the volatility of today's lenders and the stricter qualifying they are demanding on new loans, you may not qualify for a new loan or would have to come up with the requisite 20% down.Would need a little more information to know how to provide better insight here, but hope this helps a little!

So far it has proven much less volatile than the stock market.