If the deal collapses and I would lose everything, I'm out.

It collapsed to less than $10 billion in 2010, and remained there until 2015.

If the drain pipe has collapsed on itself then this might not be feasible (although it might be possible to just excavate where the collapse is and tie in the intact pipe with a replacement section using fernco fittings).

Since the financial market collapse, its been very difficult for these operators and developers to acquire financing from traditional banks, and still is to this day.

Even as several new subdivions within a 5 mile radius of me are at "just beginning" to "just completing" construction stages.Which is wiser: keeping my pennies in the bank to purchase properties as the market falls farther, faster, paying off the mortgage,or taking the pennies from the bank and burying them in the backyard so _I_ end up with them, not the bank, when the market collapses?

You put the news on and roofs are collapsing all over the region as if they were all doing the wave at a Pats a game!

Just because we've seen a surge in real estate appreciation over the past 8 years does not mean that we are poised for a collapse in housing.  

Although today, the most common statements are "I just sold my home and made this giant 6 figure pile of cash, I need to rent by closing, and I am going to wait for "the collapse" and buy again". 

@Mandi Baxter in NJ  a  few years ago we paid 30k for a repair of a single basement block wall collapse in a house that was flooded.

It may be a bad deal, but it's not going to collapse tomorrow.