Take your friend, a big RE investor, say he causes a car accident and he is sued. 

In my RE career, I've attended (as plaintiff) 44 summary ejectment hearings as managing member of my LLC.

I  don't do RE full time but purchased my first live in rehab in 1995.

Short-term rentals may allow you to take advantage of depreciation to offset your other RE income.

We did a full re-model and took it from a run down old antique store to a beautiful office space.

The returns in such markets is the lowest that any buyer is willing to achieve.Your task is to identify markets that are attractive but are not widely known by RE investors.  

I am gearing up to purchase another investment property which has made me re-evaluate how my current one is performing. 

We went to a RE conference in Irvine CA (Think Realty) (I live in Oregon) and the whole thing was rather expensive.

For RE owners, death allows you to pass assets to your heirs and step up in basis, effectively eliminating recapture.

So it is only a good RE market if you do one or more of the following:1) you can get alternative financing2) buy significantly below retail (meaning not on the mls)3) can do a value add4) can be more patient than I am.   5) alternate rent models.