Traditionally, rents don't really move up and down much and I really doubt this would be a drastic change.I think the most critical situation today is that there is a lower supply and higher demand in the real estate market now that the economy is doing well.

He is willing to take the risk of losing a little market upside with locking into a tangible asset he owns.I tended to be fairly consistent in annually looking at my portfolio and seeing what had performed, what had not, and re-balancing as needed (based on traditional pie chart models of diversification).  

@Ben Freiman,Any IRA can be rolled over into self-directed IRA, including SIMPLE, SEP, Traditional, Roth. 

I'm aggressively saving money with my wife (her portion goes to traditional investments) whereas mine will be for real estate investing.  

Because the buyer cannot qualify for traditional financing and needs to go the owner finance route, I decide that I am going to sell the house to them for 110k and add 2% interest on top of the monthly payment (I have read a lot about how sales prices can be higher for owner-finance deals, but have also read the contrary).

However you traditionally find more sophisticated and experienced players in commercial...that isn't always the case however more so than single family investing.

Because of the ease, speed, and the flexibility of private money loans over traditional bank-type loans, many investors prefer them when acquiring real estate.

Another bookend gap is between Pasadena and Downtown, also filling in nicely over the past 15+years.I'd next watch for a fill in between the Southbay and traditional Westside neighborhoods.

And I hate to say it, but it typically isn't one of the traditional liberal arts (history, english, law, political science, art)I have a very good friend who is passionate about history - do you know how many jobs are available?  

And much of this has to do with what is traditional in the market place regarding escrow flow...