If I found myself without a job like a lot of people are suddenly finding themselves confronting today, and with no income to pay my way in the world, I knew I could always fall back on the emergency account I held in cash and wouldn’t have to worry about making mortgage payments for a long time if I needed to divert that money towards any number of unexpected expenses that popped up.

Got an unexpected notice to vacate at the end of June due to the owner selling the townhouse and have less than 30 days to get out.  

I didn't make it either- my wife and I ended up snagging an unexpected lead and looking at houses for us to live in, which is even more fun than buying houses for other people

If I get more, I will use it to cover the unexpected no pays from rent while this plays out. 

If you do your analysis and numbers correctly before buying, and you aren't basing them on some pipe dream of a rent figure (ie expecting to get 1000 a month for a unit that will really rent for 600) then you are not in some hugely dangerous, risky situation.Once in a while, you'll have an unexpected repair.

We closed on a side-by-side duplex roughly 4 months after learning about real estate investing.Pretty much used all of our savings, but trusted the cash flow numbers (and reduction in net housing expenses) and knew we could re-save it all in about 18 months.Worked out well, some unexpected repairs, but as most have shared - at some point you just have to jump in and learn on the fly.