[snowman]

Ok already. Please search past posts by our host about real estate bubbles, say about 5 or 6 years ago. Then look at some of my comments at that time.

In any case the bottom line is to BUY LOW, SELL HIGH.

That means don't buy at the peak, which we are clearly at. SAVE for the bottom which will come. Buy when no one else has money and the banks won't lend you a dime. Note this is NOT flipping.

Flipping is a fad, it is now to late to flip, in general. I bought a house in one of the so called most likely to appreciate areas of the country 2 years ago. Just sold it at a price that just breaks even. Would have sold it 2 years ago, but bad luck and a bad buyer messed up the deal and I missed the time frame. Flipping will go on, but only the seasoned pros will survive.

In CA , I own real estate, consequently I "made" over a million bucks in the last 2 years, doing nothing but living in my house. Thats just dumb luck. If you have it you are just lucky, like winning a lottery, you can't count on it for investments. Our host cashed in and made the most of it, smart move, but its still just luck. How many smarts does it take to buy a house and fix it, or not fix it, if the price is going up at 5% per month? Just buy, hold, and sell, and you make money. Was it the flip or just the market?

The Wall St Journal just ran an article about real estate as an investment and it turns out that real estate does not do as well as many other investments that have much less risk.

Go to Vegas if you want to gamble.