A friend of mine sent me a copy of the Property section of the South China Morning Post during a recent business trip. It seems there’s no end to the abuse the US real estate market is getting in the press, ALL the press. Click on this link to see what’s being said overseas. Chinese perspective on US investments.

What does this mean to you? Maybe not much but consider this, one of the tenets of savvy investors is that you zig when everyone else is zagging. If you constantly follow the rush of capital from one investment to the next you will arrive late and leave late. This means you’ll be buying high and selling post bust. That won’t get you anywhere you want to be.

People get caught up in the crowd mentality it is the root cause of investment cycle booms and the busts. When your old aunt betty starts flipping homes, guess what it’s about over. When everyone was buying tech stocks and then your barista is giving you hot stock tips, you know it is time to sell.

Conversely when the whole world is down on US real estate what should you be doing? Duh. “But Brecht we’re not at the bottom yet!” and I say back to you that you should be buying based on the NUMBERS. There are so many deals out there today and rates are still so low you can’t afford not to buy.

The best buyers that I am working with today are people with cash and equity. Know how they got that way? They are people who were sidelined during this past buying frenzy. The last time they bought anything was more than 10 years ago. Now they’re coming back out of the woodwork. Are they buying like crazy? No. They are picking and choosing and making smart buying decisions based on property with predictable (sometimes improvable) returns.

I recently got a call from a gentleman whose family and property I know of but whom I did not previously know personally. This family sold off dozens of multifamilies starting three or four years ago completing the liquidation about 18 months ago. Guess why he called. They’re buying again, that’s why.

When there’s blood in the streets buy property. Baron Rothschild