Bill Bonner, with more views from South Africa...
*** We're down here at the bottom of Africa looking at a business. It is a publishing business we began more than three years ago. In that time, the business went to being tiny, insignificant and money losing, to a small, but profitable, enterprise. Now, we are growing...and we hope to become more profitable as time goes by. But the project took years already...and considerable investment. It will take many more years for employees to learn their trades.. :D,.to launch new products...to explore new markets...to make mistakes and recover from them. 
But this is how a business really works. You do not make money overnight. Instead, you get something going, you invest money, you wait...and if you work hard, and are lucky, the thing pays off. Houses, too, take time. You have to live in them to get a return on your investment.
You may say, yes...but house prices are soaring. And, yes, you are right. As near as we can tell...the fastest, surest way to make money in America today is to find a partner who is penniless. Then, go to the nation's hottest area and buy as many super-expensive houses as you can...with no-money-down. Make sure he signs as the buyer, not you. That way, if you're wrong, you won't lose anything. And if the housing bubble continues to expand...sell them all.
But don't confuse this with investing. It's pure speculation...a series of one-night stands that could be very enjoyable. The trouble is, most people don't know what they're doing. They begin to think there's something magic about real estate that makes prices always go up. They begin to think they can't lose. Then, when the bubble pops, they become the biggest losers of all. 
