The Wild World of Real Estate: Should You Invest Your Children's College Fund in Apartments, Office Buildings, Warehouses or Lottery Tickets?

Always eager to show off their knowledge of all things related to real estate, Adam and Jeff continue discussing basic considerations for investors anxious to buy income-generating property.  They point out that it is dangerous to make sweeping statements about real estate investing because there are numerous markets throughout the country and various product types (multi-family apartments, office buildings, industrial properties, shopping malls, etc.) that can be a good investment in one market and a financial weapon of mass destruction (for the owner) in another market.  Banks like multifamily apartments because of the many tenants and the incentives they have to pay their rent so that they do not get tossed out by their heartless landlords.  Industrial properties are also a flavor of the day because they are simple to operate and do not typically require a lot of tenant improvement expenditures.   Jeff cautions that if you are planning to invest in a real estate project with others, that you should take any projections about the project with a grain of salt because no projection has ever been correct in recorded history.  Adam talks about his dislike for hotels as an investment because they, like restaurants, are very time-intensive and can become an all-consuming enterprise that still may not make much money.