Oh and to get the great deals we buy short sales, and we have had lots of "failures" before we have had great success. 

When global interest rates followed T-Bills on a fast upward trajectory, these countries defaulted on their debts.In today's global economy, when a country like Greece even sneezing in the general direction of a default can cause money institutions to panic, it makes me wonder how these same institutions would react to an interest-rate-related cascade failure due to interest rate hikes.

Don't let the fear of failure stop you.

We all learn from each others experiences and I've found most people hesitate to share the failures (until they have a lot of off setting successes).RJ

Examples of a breach of this warranty include the failure to provide heat or hot water on a regular basis, or the failure to rid an apartment of an insect infestation.Public areas of the building are also covered by the warranty of habit-ability.

This is not really due to window failure (as is the case with the track windows).  

I would start by connecting with people that have had great success and some failures in RE.

That's the "success cycle", as I call it....and like my .sig says, not continuing to follow that success cycle is a choice you make and that is the point of failure.

Roof or furnace failure makes me squirm a bit but a cash reserve helps me sleep at night.  

. - absolutely, I mentioned the event on a prior post regarding property insurance.The tenant living in the unit had their electric shut off by the provider for failure to pay and upon re-connection was told to shut the main breaker off.