Buy Low Sell High

I really like the website ask a metafilter (ask.metafilter.com). In the website people post random questions and those with knowledge (or perhaps free time) post answers. One question asks, If one can purchase a house with student loan money” With the recent sub-prime crises my guess is it is going to get harder to get someone to guarantee you a loan at a reasonable interest rate without any income. The writer also supposes they can purchase the house when the market “really flops”. It is likely a better strategy to buy at a bargain, than hope that buying during an upswing of the market because trends suggest the prices will continue to rise. But you cannot predict where the market will go (if you could you could make a lot of money though) The question asker would also rent out a room in the house to offset the mortgage costs. As the answers given suggest being a landlord is not exactly a piece of cake. So overall I do no think one should purchase a house where the price needs to rise over a five year period or they could be really stuck (plus think of all of the people who leave school after a year or two). But, maybe I’m just a little more averse to risk.