While the word “recession” dominated economic discussion throughout 2020 and 2021, “inflation” is the new buzzword among economists. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a report about the U.S. inflation problem.

Your real estate investment strategy impacts which markets you should target. Where buy-and-hold investing is concerned, your market choice is paramount.

“Expectation vs reality” is a popular form of internet listicle, often sharing the stories of duped customers expecting an amazing product for a cheap price. When that's the set up, the reality is never short of disappointing. 

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: every investment comes with some level of risk. This isn’t a surprise. Our risk tolerance varies based on personality, financial circumstances, goals, experiences, and our foundational knowledge of how to invest and manage money.

Since the end of the Great Recession, the U.S. housing market has been on the rebound.

Motley Fool recently published a piece that declared real estate one of the most ethical forms of investing. We have to agree! As the article suggests, real estate investing has garnered a bit of a bad reputation throughout the pandemic. This isn’t because investor experiences have been particularly bad, but because the people they serve have been in increasingly bad situations.

Investing in anything is a game of risk management. As a general rule, your potential rewards increase as risk increases. There is no such thing as a risk-free investment. And while people with various levels of skill and experience can capitalize on high-risk opportunities, most of us don’t have the constitution for that much stress. 

By now, you know that there are many different ways to approach real estate investment. For most of us, the biggest initial question about your strategy is whether or not you want to be an active or passive investor.

As an investor, what’s the biggest challenge you face? While you might say scaling your portfolio or having enough capital to fulfill your big plans, one of the biggest struggles investors face is internal. After all, we’re human. When it comes to our money and something as big as one’s financial future, investment decisions can be scary.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into a lot of plans. Whether we had dreams of big 2020 vacations, family reunions, or big financial moves, the state of the world has led us to reconsider more than a few things. The pandemic has taken its toll on our health, our social lives, the economy, and our finances.