Never Buy Negative Cash Flow
The main rule that you have to follow in buying real estate in a declining market is to never buy in a negative cash flow. Investing in a real estate must not be about throwing away your hard earned cash. I suggest that you consult a financial advisor for this.
If you really want to earn money from a property, it will be very hard for you especially with negative cash flow. You can possibly make money out of it, but you will need to research and analyze before you can gain something from that. Watching Home and Living programs or reading books related to is no big help at all. You have to really study on the consequences of negative cash flow on the first stage of ownership period.