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Swirlaze,
The REI fad is over! It’s as simple as that. REI of course is a real business like any other, but the crazy appreciation, flipping, and all that other nonsense is over for the vast majority of those that tried it during the latest craze. All of these gullable people will move on to the next fad, whatever that is. It may be MLM, some new internet biz, selling ads, turning dog droppings into gasoline - I don’t know yet.
None of that means that Real Estate Investing is over. It just won’t be high profile anymore, because everyone is hearing on TV that the real estate bubble has burst.
I can understand your dismay with houses priced in the tens of millions of dollars. I wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole. I’m sure there is money to be made, but there is also certainly a LOT of money to be lost.
Good Luck,
Mike
I agree, I think the get-rich-quick group will be moving on. As long as people need a place to live, shop, work, etc. we will be alright. REIT’s ride the waves of the market, they are too big and cumbersome to adjust fast enough. During an upswing, an investors income must match or exceed appreciation or you will quickly get left behind. That might be where your at now Swirl. You’ll have time to catch up over the new few years.
Just like Navy SEAL and other specops would replace or eventually replace large force (as they downsize but not entirely, we just don't need a ten billion men force anymore), one would replace another.As a former member of the Special Forces, I will tell you that you will not see the conventional military disappear anytime soon. The USSOCOM depends very heavily on conventional air strikes, artillery, etc. Even though we are a mirror image of our current enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan (We build IED's, conduct ambushes, and sabotage) there are quite a few Countries I would be cautious about going to war against. North Korea is itching for a fight and they have almost 5 million troops. Even though my 9-12 man team was good and we can train and lead a small indigenous force of maybe 200 or more ourselves, I'm not so sure we could handle 5 million men.
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I’m pretty sure TR didn’t say that in the 60’s. He was HUGE in Amway in the 60’s so he wouldn’t have been badmouthing get-rich-quick then. Must have been in the 50’s that he said that.
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real estate has been a viable business since real estate has been around. The fad is all the flipping going on like on the flip show where you see john and jane dough buy a beautiful house in california for 500,000 and then do some crazy fix up or upgrade to it and then sell it for a 50k profit. What they for got to tell you was they have to also pay the broker and taxes. Anyway the fast appreciation made it easy for anyone to do it just like daytrading in the 90’s where you just bought a tech stock and sold it off in a day or 2 and made yourself a killing. This is the same thing, those people will be gone and the “true” investors will still be around making a living off what they do. I know of investors coming into the area I invest in and paying waay too much for a property because they think its cheap but its really not. Yes its good for the market if I want to sell but it also creates a sucker market. You have to know the area you invest in or know someone who does. New york city is just crazy, too much risk versus reward there. Why not buy a place for 30k and sell it for 50k? Its not a million dollars but it does pay the bills and you can if you keep them and rent them and work hard actually make a million dollars in real estate. Just not usually overnight. 
What did your cousin major in? That is probably a result of bad counseling. If I am going to pay for an education that costs $160k and take 4 years of my life, I need to understand how marketable I am going to be when I graduate. College is for either vocational or hobby purposes. That is an expensive hobby. You go to college to earn more money when you graduate than you could if you just went to work. If you start work after high school at Home Depot or Lowe’s instead of going to college, and are smart enough to finish Harvard, you will have moved up steadily and be a zone manager making $40k with bonus of $20k by then. A couple of years later you will be offered a job as store manager earning $80k with bonus of $110k. If you are majoring in English literature or music you need to get a job and read Shakespeare for fun or play in the neighborhood band on the weekends.
In general if when you graduate you aren’t called what you majored in you wasted your money. (Engineering-> engineer, accounting → accountant, etc).