In my market most of the bank owned houses make it out of the first look period , then a huge wave of investor bids come in and it turns into a bidding war .

I wired the money from my bank, the red flags that started waving, was the fact I had to go to my bank 3 times because of wiring problems on the sellers end.

I tend to think that unless you are in need of the cash in a major way, why not use the tax-free funds to dive into something larger and ride the wave?

My advice is to know your local market well enough so that a great deal will pop up and wave a flag.

Also RE does not suddenly crash, it takes months and years for the trend to change; its slow like an oil tanker, the 2008 crash was very visible in the market data 2 years prior.I don't follow the stock market close enough to comment, but we are not going to see a RE crash any time soon, at least not in the midwest, if anything we may see things slow down at some point, which would be good - what I believe we will see (I am already seeing it in my biz) is a new wave of economic and climate related migration within the US, based on the fact that remote working is allowing people to move from fires, droughts and exuberant real estate prices to the states that are much more attractive - I am getting several calls a week now from people moving to Milwaukee, usually from the states out west, but also from down south.

Driving for Dollars is still valid, sending targeted letters can still yield results - many landlords ARE getting scared and may be wanting to sell their "dog" properties before the second wave hits.

They waved the closing costs, charged me only the escrow for the 1st 2 months.

Your going to see a large wave of foreclosures and short sales.

The sound waves are being transferred mainly through the connection points in the walls so the 2x4's.

There are a wave of high rises coming to Miami which are Airbnb friendly.