We are long overdue for the depression, the tsunami and the mega earthquake too.

A poorly-structured deal with an improper debt structure, not enough reserves raised and adverse market conditions derail the cash, uncontrollable bad debt that sacrifices cash flow with no ability by the sponsor to bridge the gap, uninsured total earthquake loss (or similar uncovered loss), nuclear war, just to name a few.  

Second, Doomsday posters need to refer to history and see how these great cities have come back from devastating setbacks that include natural disasters like major earthquakes or human oriented terrorist attacks.

It's like saying the after-shocks are in direct relation to the initial earthquake.

Originally posted by @Johann Jells:Hey @David Doyle, do you have any idea why flexi gas and water feeds are required in CA for earthquakes but rare (illegal??) 

No state income tax, grass to tend, no ice/snow, humidity/excessive rain, storms with names, floods, earthquakes but with reasonable to great property tax rates and less LL-tenant regulation. 

After many years and many properties, we've been through a series of adventures (and misadventures) worthy of a Hollywood script--including flooded rentals, earthquake-caused property condemnation, unexpectedly canceled contracts, and even having to navigate a felony-level crime committed at a property we had under contract...but those are stories for another day...Now, to answer your question: I spent about 1 hour with my agent on a Monday going over my goals and learning about his process...that Thursday, we spent about 8 hours looking at properties and making our offer, and we were under contract that night...so, it was a fast-paced process, and much quicker than I had expected (but that had more to do with the breakneck pace of my local market than anything). 

For instance, you or your love ones get diagnosed with cancer or serious illness, become disabled and need 24hr care, get in a car wreck and get sued, the bank closes your lines of credit (yeah I already said this but this really made me mad with a 780 credit score), the market crashes, you get divorced, a riot or hurricane or earth quake or flood wipes out or damages most your properties, and the list goes on and on.

CA went through a deep dive after the loma Preita earthquake and the first War in the mid east and things got really bad.. they had 250 different properties  student housing senior  MHP ( land development that I ran) and of course apartments galore and they could not sustain and it all got liquidated and I found myself out of a job..

Smiling Steve Babiak got mixed up with my > and <'s.You helped me to realize that I need GRM's less than or equal to 4 for these properties to make any sense.Ugh, isn't California supposed to fall off into the Ocean next earthquake anyway?