What are your thoughts on this "conspiracy theory"?

[Ty Whitman]

It's been a bit of a surprise to me that, in spite of what I thought was a huge bubble last year, both real estate and stocks all kept rising.  Once COVID hit, I was sure that would prick the bubble and start the downturn, but both markets only seemed to take off.  I'm not sure our stock or real estate markets would have continued to climb without trillions being printed by the fed.   I'm left in this place where I don't trust the stock market as an investment, and I don't even like just holding cash with all the money printing and inflation. Real estate is where I'm comfortable, but I'm worried about a huge downturn, even though I feel like my particular market will be somewhat resistant to one as compared to other markets.

I was listening to a podcast the other day that was talking about foreign and wealthy investors buying up real estate in the USA, as well as "dirty" money being "laundered" through real estate.  This text link below was basically the gist of the podcast.  Here are some excerpts:

"All-cash transactions have come to account for a quarter of all residential real estate purchases, “totaling hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network – the financial crimes unit of the federal Treasury Department, also known as FinCEN – noted in a 2017 news"

also from the article:

“It reminds me of Moldova after the fall of the Soviet Union: oligarchs running wild, stashing their gains in buildings,” James Wright, an attorney and former Treasury Department bank examiner, told me. He now helps foreign governments combat money laundering. “Back then, you’d walk down the street, and people would say, ‘That building is a washing machine.’ Everyone knew it. Today, America is not that different.”

I've done a small amount of research into the topics talked about, as well as how FinCEN operates, and it's interesting.

So my thought that I'd be curious to hear your opinions on:  What are the chances that "those in the know" are "laundering and stashing" money into real estate due to knowledge of a massive impending economic collapse, and that is essentially what has kept this market propped up as long as it has into this COVID crisis?

[Curtis Yoder]

I have been investing in SFH and small MF for over 20 years. When I first dipped my toe in the water in 1999 I was told that RE was overvalued and would be devastated in the coming year. I was spooked, I bought very slowly and a handful of properties over the following years. After the crash of 2008 everyone told me again that RE was a poor investment and just look at the housing crash! It took me a few years after that to simply dive in and believe in my return numbers, forget property values for the most part, focus on the value play and cash on cash returns and stay conservative.

The gist of this is don't believe all of the "experts", they always have much to say. Of course you should be prudent in your research but if you listen to the outlyers you will never do anything. Because of course the world is going to end tomorrow don't you know!? Be careful who you listen to. Good luck!