What Happened to Real Estate Investing?

April 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: A casual, insightful conversation between two real estate investing experts. It feels like a debrief between friends who have seen the market shift and want to level-set expectations for their audience.
The Key Players:
- Dave Meyer: Chief Investment Officer at BiggerPockets. The analytical, data-driven host who provides the historical and economic context.
- Henry Washington: A seasoned real estate investor. The pragmatic, "in-the-trenches" voice who shares the real-world struggles and adjustments of buying deals in today's market.
The Vibe: Educational & Refreshingly Honest. The tone is not doom-and-gloom, but rather a sober, encouraging reality check. It’s a "tough love" conversation that ultimately feels optimistic for those willing to adapt.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Dave Meyer & Henry Washington**
2 (04:04) **What Happened to Real Estate Investing?**
3 (10:16) **What Has Gotten Harder: Rising Costs & Seller Expectations**
4 (14:09) **The Transition from a Seller's to a Buyer's Market**
5 (21:40) **Reacting to "Real Estate is Dead" Claims**
6 (28:29) **Adjusting Underwriting for 2026**
7 (36:35) **Positive Outlook & Final Advice**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

What happened to real estate investing?

From 2010 until 2022 everyone wanted to buy real estate. Fortunes were being made, cash flow was plentiful in many markets, and real estate seemed to only go up…until it didn’t. Now influencers are saying “real estate is dead,” some investors have given up on financial freedom, and many are taking a pause.

But, if you ask any American if home prices will go up in the next ten years, they will reply “of course!” Is it the same with stocks, crypto, precious metals? Not at all. So, where are we at in the cycle? Is this the bottoming-out period that 2030s investors will look back on and wish they could have bought, or is this the new normal now that the “goldilocks era” of investing is over.

Today, we’re answering two questions: What happened to real estate investing and why we’re still investing in it, today. It may not be as easy, but it’s still looking so worth it as crypto falls off a cliff, stocks see their worst weeks in years, and real estate deals get more meat on the bone. This is why we’re still investing in real estate today, even if we’ll never return to the 2010s era.

In This Episode We Cover

What happened to real estate investing? Why cash flow was uniquely easy to get in the 2010s

Market pain = opportunity: the real reason why experienced investors are heavily buying in 2026

The “get rich quick with real estate” expectations are wrong (but you can still retire early with rentals)

How we’re changing our strategies in 2026 to buy at bigger discounts and protect against downside risk

And So Much More!

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