To put it bluntly, it's more about getting the guy out alive before he devalues the home one way or the other - purpose is for the owner to consider a well known and used strategy to help himself.

What kind of steps would yall take to maximize financial possibilities (ie buying and sellling), especially since I don't want to buy a house at the top of the market and have it devalue in a few years. 

Hey, my neighbor needs surgery but has no health insurance, so i'll go to a medical doctor site, read about surgical techniques and then offer to perform the surgery for my neighbor.It never ceases to amaze me that people with no knowledge or experience think they can be successful in real estate; what it really is is an arrogance that devalues the ability, experience, knowledge of those that have studied and performed successfully in the field for many years.

There isn't much analysis about it between these sources, the box store is the only reliable source along with other retail outlets, lumber yards, etc.You don't devalue a nice property putting junk in it, what you use needs to be appropriate to value. :)

With inflation the money is devalued year over year so you still want maximum return but in a safe way. 8 million today would be devalued heavily in 10 to 20 years.Most of my clients with commercial real estate are very happy with 10 to 15% coc returns annually.

Plus, the systematic devaluation of the dollar causes everything to be more expensive for everyone, regardless of where they happen to live.

However, I’d rather park my cash in RE vs having it get devalued by the minute in the bank earning only 2 or 3% interest.

A poorly run HOA can devalue even the nicest of properties. 

If I were to make an offer and go after the house at say, $40K, and put 40-50K in fixing the soil/foundation issue, would the home regain its original appraised worth, or is this a scarlet letter on the home that will forever cause it to be devalued?

"so what that will do is boost consumer confidence for all those fence sitters waiting for real estate to devalue in their markets by some big meltdown %... and as an asset class should sale right through the trough we are in and or have entered.ALot of why construction is down is the lack of land.. keep in mind builders need 2 to 5 years to get permits. and Spec financing has not fully rebounded as well.. so lack of product lack of liquidity in the space..