What are the factors that prevent someone from losing money in real estate?

Written by David Greene for FORBES: We all know some who frequently lament their decision to invest in real estate. Constantly blaming the market, or real estate as an industry, they believe the entire process is predicated on luck and timing, an exercise in chance. For people who have lost money investing, it’s easy to sympathize with them-but are their beliefs regarding results being beyond their control actually accurate? 

Many who bought property between 2001 and 2007 lost money. These were years where prices aggressively increased, largely due to loose lending practices that allowed people to buy homes they could not afford using loans that were only temporarily manageable. Prices continued to climb until these loans reset, at which point houses fell into foreclosure, prices continued to drop, and the overall housing market spiraled into chaos. 

But was this truly unavoidable or impossible to predict? Is it justified to live in fear of something like this happening again?

If you believe the answer is “yes”, you’re not likely to get started investing in real estate. The constant fear of an anvil dropping on your head like a looney toons cartoon will prevent you from ever taking any serious type of action. This will also prevent you from having any serious chance of success. The consequences for incorrectly assuming real estate investing is a gamble are grave.

If you believe the answer is “no”, it begs the question-what are the factors that prevent someone from losing money in real estate? Is it just a matter of timing the market? Is it found in getting only great deals? Or are there more pieces to the puzzle?

If we can understand what causes folks to lose money in real estate, we can take preventive measures to ensure it doesn’t happen to us. While no investment is without risk, smart investors understand there are certainly precautions that can be taken to mitigate that risk. In my nearly ten years of investing in real estate I’ve found there are certain steps to take that have a big impact on avoiding the wrong deal. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time listening, interviewing, and speaking with real estate investors. I’ve found patterns in what went well, and I’ve also seen patterns in what led to things going horribly wrong.

The following is a list of the things I’ve noticed often lead to catastrophe. Avoiding these mistakes will greatly increase your odds of real estate investing success.