The reason I say this is because Europe experienced the exact same spike in inflation, except they never increased M2 like we did, it's just flat.

You should connect with @Fed Finjap; I just saw on another post that he is also buying in the Chicago neighborhood ofLakeview and he recently went through some lessons learned on a 3 flat in Chicago.Check out his post:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/922/topics/1223655-refl...

Have a small flat here that was just recently purchased and under mortgage.

Where I am, the market has been flat and down for a long time.

Real Estate is a belly to belly business.

Below are some actionable steps I plan to take after identifying a market:- find a rock star agent by referral and/or calling brokerages and asking to connect with their top producing agents- find a rock star contractor by referral and/or yelp- have control over construction by setting per diems to incentivize contractor to finish the project on time, within budget, and with good quality- leverage my rock star agent's time to check up on the construction process (checks and balances)- hire independent handymen/inspectors to check up on the construction process for a flat fee (checks and balances) There's competition everywhere, you won't escape that in any market. 

After all, the Earth is flat in some forums. 

Brokers, loan officers, and underwriters flat out get things wrong sometimes.

Sometimes you can find a large enough company that you can sub everything out to them and get paid on a commission or flat fee basis, or you can get the property platted and sell it that way.

Markets stay flat for five years and you've been bleeding cash then what?