Painting all contractors ( or even most of them) with a broad brush of con men is like saying all RE Investors are just out to be slum lords and only care about the money and Flippers are selling you junk houses with paint jobs.  

Experts, more often than not, were calling for a "soft landing." 

Around here in rowhouse territory it's pretty common, bad foundations on soft ground, bulging facades, entire buildings leaning on their neighbor.

Do Hard Money brushed me off because I questioned their $2500 up front fee.

And, I still manage to keep my hands soft ;).

We are in a soft market now, or call it a buyer's market.

In a crisis like this, I will choose to be a bit more soft than usual. 

Some people walk very "heavy footed", some people unconsciously tap their foot, pace back and forth, etc....even just dropping the remote control for an xbox can make noise that sound like you are dropping a hammer....the area rugs will help, but, sometimes the downstairs tenant cant handle living underneath, sometimes the upstairs tenant can't manage to not be a naturally(unintentional) noisy neighbor, and other times one of them is just a psycho.Of the hundreds of tenants I have had at that building, I would say most try their best to walk softly and be aware of the neighbors(especially if you have soft way of encouraging that type of empathy), and the ones that are not good at living below people, eventually move.

I think the biggest mistake that many inexperienced investors are going to make is waiting too long to capitalize on any softness in the market.

Maybe one of the "soft money" lenders like lima capital?