Bitcoin & Gold Are Crashing: What Smart Real Estate Investors Do Next

Bitcoin is down. Gold and silver are slipping. Investors everywhere are asking the same question. Where should I put my money now?

In this solo episode of The Wisconsin Investor, Corey Reyment breaks down what today’s market volatility really means and why periods like this often quietly benefit real estate investors, especially in Midwest markets like Wisconsin.

This is not a crypto debate or a gold-bashing episode. It is a grounded conversation about risk, liquidity, control, and long-term fundamentals. When speculative assets fall fast, fear gets loud, but opportunity tends to show up in places that do not make headlines.

In this episode, Corey explains:

• Why Bitcoin, stocks, and gold are often the first assets sold during market fear
• How liquidity cuts both ways in investing
• Why real estate does not react to headlines the same way
• Why Wisconsin’s demand-driven housing markets continue to perform over time
• Why waiting for the perfect market crash often backfires
• Why boring, cash-flowing properties consistently win long-term

If you are a real estate investor wondering whether now is the right time to buy or if you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for clarity, this episode is a reminder that fundamentals beat speculation and consistency beats timing.

This episode is especially relevant for investors focused on single-family homes, duplexes, and small multifamily properties who want to build long-term wealth through steady cash flow and disciplined investing in the Midwest.

Visit wisconsindiscountproperties.com to get access to the exclusive deal list with off-market and investor-friendly opportunities across Wisconsin.

Transcript

Setting The Stage And Disclaimers

Liquidity, Emotion, And Selling Pressure

Why Capital Quietly Moves To Housing

Real Estate’s Boring Edge: Cash Flow

Midwest Consistency Over Coastal Hype

Dollar Cost Averaging Vs. Speculation

Speaker 0:40

Bitcoin is down, gold is slipping, and investors everywhere are asking the same question: where do I put my money now? Because when assets people call safe havens start falling, it forces a really uncomfortable conversation about risk, control, and where real wealth actually gets built. So, what's going on, everybody? Corey Reyment here. I am your host of the Wisconsin Investor. And uh today we're gonna be talking about what's happening in the world right now. We've we've got Bitcoin crashing, we've got gold and silver crashing after just like some amazing runs those two ages had. How does that relate to real estate, right? So we're gonna tie this together today. I'm not here to debate crypto. It's not like poo-poo on gold episode either, but this is just a conversation about market volatility. What does it mean and why moments like this tend to quietly benefit real estate investors who understand cycles? Because every time the markets get shaky, the same thing happens. Fear gets loud and opportunity gets quiet. So, full disclosure, I own some Bitcoin. Um I have I've been investing in Bitcoin for a while, not in big amounts. I've just been doing the old classic dollar cost average, just buy you know, set amount every week and wherever it I buy it at, I buy it at. So I've got kind of a mixed thing when it falls. I'm like, okay, great, I'm gonna buy some at a lower amount. When it goes way up, I buy it at the higher amount, good or bad. You never know where it's where the run is gonna end. So over the last couple days, we'll see how well this episode ages. I'm recording this on a Friday. Uh the Friday before this is gonna hit on Tuesday. And so we will see if by Tuesday, this is still the same story. So apologies ahead of time. If while you're listening to this, Bitcoin's back up to 120 and gold is at 5,000, then this is not gonna age well. Uh, if you're listening to this months down the road, this may be a completely irrelevant episode, but I would encourage you to listen in anyway. We're not just gonna be talking about exactly what's happening in today's world. This will be some fundamentals today that we'll talk about as we tie this into some of these more speculative investments, uh safe assets, those types of things, like gold. Um, and you know, like I said, over the last couple days we've seen Bitcoin take a massive hit. I think uh as I looked yesterday, it lost over half its value from its peak of well, I think it was around the 120s gold, which a lot of people consider the ultimate safe asset. You know, it hasn't exactly been hitting any records in the last couple of days in the positive either. So, you know, when that happens, people start questioning assumptions they didn't even realize they had. You know, like I thought this was protection, I thought this was a hedge, I thought this was safe. And here's the key thing most people miss these drops aren't random, they're emotional. So when investors get nervous, they sell what's easy to sell stocks, crypto, gold, ETF, anything with a button you can click gets liquidated first. Now, that doesn't mean these assets are dead. I mean, it means they're liquid. In liquid liquidity, it cuts both ways, right? And so why should real estate investors even care about a Bitcoin or a gold pullback? And here's why, because crashes force capital to move. So think about like the last couple of days of what's what's happened in the market. A bunch of things are are moving right now, right? And when people lose money or confidence, you know, they're gonna start asking better questions. Like, what do I actually control? What produces income instead of hope? What isn't repriced every second based on fear? And historically, this is when money starts flowing away from speculation and towards fundamentals, not overnight, but quietly. All right. And this is where real estate has an advantage most people don't talk about. Your rental property doesn't wake up one morning down 20% because of a headline or a tweet that went out, or whatever they call it now, an X posting, whatever. You know, there's no margin call on your duplex. Rents aren't updating every 10 seconds on a screen or a ticker. Um, you know, real estate values really move on cash flow, supply and demand, classic demand for housing, location, the long-term supply, affordability, and here's here's the big one. You know, you can't live in Bitcoin, right? This is an obvious thing, but you can't rent out gold. But people always need housing. And that's why during periods of uncertainty, boring starts to look really, really attractive. You know, Bitcoin looks really, really sexy when it's running up 10-20%, right? Real estate looks boring, all right. And the smartest investors that I talk to, they're not they're not panicking, they're not chasing rebounds either. They're just sitting back and asking, you know, where can I lock in long-term value? Where can I create predictable income? Who actually understands this cycle? Well, a lot of them are holding cash, a lot of them are looking for discounted deals, and a lot of them are partnering, you know, with operators who've been through volatility before. So, you know, crashes don't magically create opportunity. They really just reveal who was prepared. So this is also why Midwest markets like Wisconsin, which is why we love this state, you know, we don't make flashy headlines here, but we perform incredibly well over time. You know, we're not a hype-driven market, we're more demand-driven. People still need places to live, rent demand stays strong, and cash flow matters more than appreciation. Like when you get out on the coast, you're gonna see that similar to Bitcoin, you're gonna see big runs and big losses. And where we're at is we're in that steady eddy range. And the in the best markets, you know, they don't make headlines, they make money, right? And consistently over time. And consistency is one of the things that ultimately is gonna lead to success. People trying to time the market, and I'm gonna buy when it's really good, and I'm gonna sell, you know, I'm gonna sell when it's really good, or I'm gonna buy when it's really low and sell when it's really high. They're missing out. And I go back to the dollar cost averaging conversation that I was having with my Bitcoin investment. Now, again, I'm small, about like 50 bucks a week. I'm not I'm not spending tons of money on Bitcoin, right? Because it is speculative. That's not my wheelhouse. I'm not a Bitcoin investor, but I, you know, put a little bit of money over there, takes off. It's more like me going to the casino, is the way that I equate it. I don't go really go to the casino anymore. Not that I'm opposed to a casino. I like I like playing the game stuff, but I I go into it understanding there's a really, really good chance I'm walking in with X amount of dollars and I'm walking out with zero. Like that's the probability of it. And so when I buy speculative stocks or cryptocurrency or whatever the case is, uh, you know, I also understand it's kind of like gambling. I'm gonna put some money in. Hopefully, I hit it big. If I don't, oh well, I kind of understood that was the risk I was taking when I did that. Um real estate, dollar cost average real estate, you're gonna come out ahead consistently over time if you're consistently buying real estate. I've shared this graph before. I think when Reese did his episode, or maybe it was with Reese Ann Connor a few episodes ago, they shared the same thing. We look at graphs over time and we look at just the appreciation number. So when we're talking about like we don't bank on appreciation here in the Midwest in Wisconsin, but when we look at appreciation over time, real estate as a whole in the United States. So again, this is factoring in some of the coasts and things like that. But when you look at appreciation over time of 70, I believe it was 74, 75, 76 years, somewhere in that range, real estate has lost six times out of those years, meaning it's gone negative on value in those in that period of time only six times. Two of those years, it was at a zero percent. So it wasn't really even a loss, it just didn't gain any percentage. Most of those years were in the in the 2008 crash. So if we really look at how it's performed over time, I've heard consistently, I've been in this business now almost a decade, and I have heard consistently from people sitting on the fence when times are good, as they say, ah, I'm waiting for that crash. When that crash comes, I'm gonna get it. Prices are too high right now. I can't, you know, I can't do it. Well, guess what? They haven't come down in 76 years, other than us six different times. So if you're waiting for that crash, I'm not a I'm not I don't I'm not gonna sit here and be the guru that predicts the next market crash. I'm just gonna keep buying real estate. And if real estate crashes, I'm gonna buy some more real estate and probably a lot more of it because now I'm gonna be getting a much better deal on it. But I'm not gonna miss out right now on the deals that I'm getting that still makes sense for what I'm looking to do for my portfolio. Uh and I would I would say that's the difference between the speculation and the immediate click button you can do online with stocks and speculation versus the real estate is more of a strategic calculated plan. And so, really, if there's one takeaway from everything happening right now, it's this you know, volatility is loud, fundamentals are quiet. Real estate is gonna be here to reward those people who stay disciplined when other people are getting distracted. So if you're out there and you've got a choice, do I invest in something speculative or do I invest in something strategic and disciplined, real estate's gonna reward you, right? If you're an investor rethinking where your capital should be, especially if you're looking at the Midwest, this is exactly the moment to start having those conversations. So right now, what we're doing on our end is we're just consistently buying. And I'm looking back at my portfolio, it's been kind of fun, like thinking about this crash a little bit. And for those of you out there that own a lot of Bitcoin, this is not fun. So this I'm not minimizing that for anybody out there right now uh that's in in a situation I know it's tough. Like if real estate crashed, that would suck, right? At least in the moment. Like I said though, what would I do? I would go buy more real estate, right? And I'm not saying if you're a Bitcoin investor, go buy more Bitcoin. Maybe that's the answer. But again, you can't live in Bitcoin. And that's the one thing we know. So if you're looking for something stable, consistent over long periods of time and reliable, real estate has been the answer.

unknown 11:16

Right.

Long-Run Data And Missed Crashes

Operators, Fundamentals, And Base Hits

Avoid Shiny Objects, Buy What Works

Weathering Downturns With Cash Reserves

Steady Acquisition Mindset And Closing

Speaker 11:16

And I know a lot of you guys out here listening to this, I am preaching to the choir. Right? I get it, I understand that. But I want to just continue to reinforce it your belief. If you are getting shaky in these moments when the market's kind of crazy, it's been volatile for a while. And if you follow anything in investing stocks, whatever the case is, every day it seems like one day it's doing amazing, the next day there's a crash, then it's amazing, then it's a crash, and it's this massive roller coaster. You know what hasn't had that same thing? It's been real estate. It's just been steady Eddie, continuing on. Now, people are talking about this 18-year cycle as well coming up. They're saying there's an 18-year real estate cycle, we're gonna see a crash. Okay. When you look back at the data over time, you do not see that in those appreciation numbers. So then maybe there's a correction, maybe we won't see as much appreciation. I think we've seen some of that over the last couple of years with elevated interest rates, but we're not seeing these big crashes like what Bitcoin's experiencing and gold and silver have experienced here. Those really quick up and down roller coaster rides. It's been very, very consistent. Now, if it does crash, something to be thinking about as you guys are planning ahead is the chance of that rebounding really, really fast is probably pretty slow or pretty pretty small chance, right? Because it's just not as volatile in real estate as it is in some of these other things. You can't just click and sell your property tomorrow, right? You gotta have a buyer for it, and that takes advertising, it takes time, and you gotta go through title, and there's a lot more checks and balances in real estate. So the liquidity piece, as we said, that cuts both ways, as I said earlier. In some aspects, being able to go online, just click a button and sell your asset before it tanks, that's awesome, right? To have that ability to if you're on top of those things and you can just get in and out of these things as quickly as you want, that's fantastic. Okay. But also you look at the volatility. If that's not your play, you've got a main gig, you're you're earning a nice W-2, or you've got your own other business and real estate's your retirement plan or anything like that, like you probably don't have time to be sitting there looking at every single metric and economic data and everything else that's gonna happen. And also, again, like I said, we don't see the crashes as quickly in real estate. So even if it does start to move that direction, you've you've probably got a little bit of a runway to make some moves to set yourself up for potential slide, right? That's the big difference here. Again, you can't live in it, you can't rent out gold, you can't rent out Bitcoin. Um, those are just really everybody says they're they're safe havens, but they're very volatile, as we're seeing. Ups and downs. It's it's if that's what you like to live in, great. But I know the the best operators out there and the people that have consistently been doing real estate for a long time, they don't panic. They just keep doing the same thing, right? Looking back at some of the numbers, guys, um that just on some of our deals, okay. 2020, 2021, we saw some insane appreciation here in Wisconsin, like for us, right? Coast people are like, oh, that's nothing. But I think in some areas, it was like 20% appreciation in year over year, which is just probably the most we've ever had um in any period of time, wasn't that 2021? So we are due for some sort of correction, which we're seeing right now with interest rates higher. But when I look back at that, I remember we used to be a part of a RIA. Carrie and I ran a RIA here in town, Real Estate Investment Association group. Um, and I did a presentation one month, and it was called How to Crush It in a Hot Market. And I remember I pulled headlines from 2016 when I got started in real estate, and it said, real estate's in a bubble, it's gonna crash, real estate's at all-time highs, all these kinds of things. So this was like after it had recovered from all weight. Now it was like, now everything was priced too high again. And it was 2017. Somebody else, some other talking head out there predicting that the market was gonna crash in 2017, 2018, it was even worse. Oh, we're really overdue. It's a 10-year bubble, it's gonna burst. And then it was 2019, and so you get the point, right? So by 2021, there were several people in my in my network that were interested in getting started in real estate investing, and they waited because they read the headlines and they followed the news cycles and they did all these things that were all hype and to get clicks. And somebody wanted to be the next person to to call the 2008 crash, right? Think about like Robert Kiyosaki and some of these other guys, right? I follow Kiyosaki's stuff, but I'm I'm curious to see. I haven't looked in the last couple of days, but prior to this, he was just huge on Bitcoin and gold. And he was all about like, look at me, I told you guys, Bitcoin and gold, our fiat currency is trash, everybody's moving to safe havens, and here we are on this episode recording this as Bitcoin's just cut half of its value in a matter of two or three days, and gold has gone right back down to where it was before, and I haven't checked it today, but um it's not where it was a week ago. And so I'm curious what these guys say. Anyway, point is everybody wants to predict the next crash or the next boom or whatever it is. The guys that are doing really well and the gals that are doing really well in a lot of investing, they're quiet. You don't see them. They're not out there making flashes and predicting the market and doing that thing. They're just running their same formulas that have worked for decades. Or if they're newer, hey, this has worked for me for the last five, seven years. They just keep going. And they work on the fundamentals, they work on being better operators, they work on tightening up their systems to improve that cash flow that they currently have or whatever their system is, but they're not out there speculating, they're out there just quietly building wealth, deal after deal, base hit after base hit, boom, home run. Um those of you guys out there as well, I want to just talk about this as well. If we talk about speculation, you know, multifamily a while back was a big, a big um shiny object. It was a big Bitcoin, so to speak, now, much better asset, right? But what ended up happening is I saw several investors get shiny object syndrome out there, just kind of like what Bitcoin can do when things are looking great, or what gold can do, or some of these other speculative investments can do. Uh it not to say it was speculative, but what it did, it was as a distraction, right? And it took several people as they started to get excited about this new asset class that they maybe could get into. They started look only looking for these multifamily deals, right? And what ended up happening is they missed base hit after base hit after base hit, the boring stuff like we talked about earlier. They missed the duplex, they missed the single family that would have cash flowed and had a bunch of equity, they missed the triplex, whatever it was, because they would, oh, I gotta have 12 units or better, or whatever the case was, right? And again, I've talked to some, I just talked to a buddy of mine who's in our mastermind group we call Collective Genius. Some of you guys heard me reference this in the past. The guy's got a thousand units now in the last like five years. And he's doing his main business is wholesale and flip. That's how he makes his cash. And then he takes all those proceeds and he invested into multifamily stuff. But I asked him, I said, Well, what's your buy box, man? What does that look like? And he's like, Oh, I'm you know, I'm not a big fan of buy box per se. Um, but I will tell you this is I don't care if it's a single family or a hundred units, as long as it meets my his his rent ratio number he wanted and it cash flows to his number, he'll buy anything. And that's how he got 2,000 units. So I'm not saying that that's a right approach for some of you guys out there because, you know, it takes in the old saying, it takes the same amount of work to buy a 12 unit as it does a single family house. In some aspects that's true, some aspects maybe not. But I will just say this, you know, if you're out there and you're you're sitting there, you got some big goals for 2026, and you're not getting deals or you're not uh having success on acquiring properties, that that's one area maybe to look at, guys, is your fundamentals. How are you analyzing these deals? And how are you gonna go after them? Are you too scared right now to go out there and get some deals under contract? Um you're missing out on some opportunities, guys. You're gonna miss out in five years. You can take what looks on the surface like a very mediocre deal, barely like a lot of people probably wouldn't even touch it, and you can turn that thing into look like a genius just because time worked in your favor as we look about over history. Again, I'm not gonna have to curse the ball. I don't know, maybe five years, the market's at a low point, and you're you're gonna be stuck with that one for longer than five years. But as long as you can ride out that storm, you can get through it. A lot of you guys know Tony Breuer that listened to this, uh co-owner of Good Faith Funding, a good friend of mine. He started investing in 1999, I think it was, and owned a bunch of properties uh through the crash of 08. And one of the things he always talked about was his rents actually went up during that because nobody could get a mortgage, so they had to rent. And uh and his values tanked on the properties, but he didn't sell them, right? It's like a stock, right? Bitcoin right now. I'm I just lost a lost a bunch of money, quote unquote, in Bitcoin. I'm not gonna sell it right now. Maybe it goes to zero. I doubt it. But if it did, well, that would be pretty crazy. It'd be really, really hard for your real estate to go to zero, right? I mean, that's never happened, likely will never happen, that your rental property with people in there paying monthly rent, creating monthly income would go to zero. So that's something else to consider, guys. If you're sitting out on the sidelines, you're not picking anything up because of the headlines out there. Remember, real estate has been consistent for decades, right? And the more you sit out, the more opportunities you're missing out on. Best time to plant the tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today. I know it's cliche, but it's really, really true. I've actually picked up a lot of my efforts on my own personal acquisitions just because I do this podcast, and I'm like, wait a minute, why am I not just buying more stuff? Like just consistently adding to the portfolio. So I'm actively looking at some portfolios right now, 20-some units, 30-some units, that kind of thing. But I'm also, I just bought a duplex and I'm buying another duplex, upper lowers, crappy, like not great, not great looking properties, right? Not very nice. I wouldn't probably move into them in their current condition. But we're gonna fix them up. We're gonna make them nice, we're gonna create some value with them because we got them at a good price. Not the price I would have got it at five years ago, but it's a good price for today's market. And it'll still cash flow after we do all the rehab on it, and we'll have some equity when it's all said and done. That's really my buy box. Right? Can I buy these properties, fix them up a little bit, have some cash flow and have some equity? If I can do all that, that's a winner for me. Single family duplex doesn't really matter. Right. So I just want to encourage you guys out there today, you know, as as you're watching some of the headlines, if you're into the Bitcoin space or you pay attention with the stocks, the gold, the crypto, ETFs, whatever the case is, um, you know, remember real estate has consistently performed decade over decade. It consistently goes up in values. There may be a correction at some point, but you don't have to sell during the correction. So set yourself up. If that's a fear of yours, set yourself up to be able to weather the storm if it does come up, right? You know, get yourself some cash reserves, get yourself a little kitty set aside to be able to cover if things go south and um and have a little six-month runway, maybe a year runway of expenses set aside for your portfolio, and be ready to weather the storm if it does come up. But you don't have to sell if it crashes. Remember that. All right. Um, only if only if you do, because you didn't do the fundamentals properly. So hopefully this is helpful today, guys. A little bit shorter episode, solo episode here. Thought this was timely to get on here and just encourage you guys out there to keep, you know, remembering real estate consistently performs. It's been there for decades and always done well, always will long term. So thanks for listening, guys. If you got some value, please share the episode. We always love that. We love your reviews, and I would love to hear any topics you guys have that you want me to cover on these episodes. So comment on the YouTube if you're watching it on YouTube, comment underneath on the episode. Let me know what you thought of today's episode and and uh what you'd want to hear on future episodes or any guess you want me to get on here that you think would bring value, I'm happy to do so. Uh, love making those connections. If you have a connection you want me to reach out to, I can do that as well. But remember stay rational, stay patient, and I'll catch you on the next episode.