Balloon payment

I've been wondering now about an offer I had back in 1983 to invest in real estate. The plan was to pay a reasonable sum every month, then after a period of some years there was to be this big, seemingly insurmountable and huge payment to make. It seemed scary to me at the time. I had other prospects in view as well, so I passed up the opportunity to make payments on real estate in the San Fransisco Bay Area. Now I'm wondering if I had gone for it would I have been one of the ones guilty of the present economic crisis?