I've read a lot of articles about real estate written by actual economists and have a Bachelors and Masters degree in business which includes years of statistics and economics studies, and the cycles basically come down to the fundamentals of economics, supply and demand.

COVID had a strong impact on real estate prices starting in 2020, where price increases were not based on fundamentals.

In this case, you can estimate the long term historical appreciation rate by computing CAGR over multiple decades (spanning multiple RE cycles) and then understanding the driving fundamentals of supply and demand and if they are persistent or not. 

I believe that if you are truly compatible with the person you are getting married to, then both of you will naturally be on the same page about getting a prenup since the way you both handle money one of the fundamental values.

Get to know the fundamentals of investing so well that you can talk to any one.

Although getting a Real Estate license takes a little time, the basic knowledge of the industry is super helpful in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of real estate and the laws that we are bound by.

Having a great team in place is probably just as important as picking a market with good underlying fundamentals (a diverse JOBS market (ideally recession-resistant jobs like in govt., education, healthcare, defense), population growth, desirability, affordability, favorable weather and landlord/tenant laws).

Let's look at the fundamentals.

Again, this is not a "fire and forget" type of investment strategy, because either you or him will have to educate yourself on a lot of real estate fundamentals, to avoid taking unnecessary losses.

@Robert DeanThe elemental and fundamental rule of real estate investing is:NEVER USE YOUR OWN MONEY OR YOUR OWN CREDITNEVER PERSONALLY GUARANTEE DEBT