Should I?

Like stock market investing, real estate prices are constantly in flux. For many investors, the goal is to buy low and sell high. But that's never a guarantee, and it often doesn't work.

Timing the market, or waiting to buy or sell based on prices, is a method that most investing experts recommend against, especially when it comes to the stock market. And the same is true for real estate, according to an investor who owns 10 properties.

"They are kind of the same in that they have risk," says one real estate investor who owns 10 rental properties. In their experience, ups and downs in the housing market should matter just about as much as they do in the stock market if you're looking to buy.

Experts say it's never a good idea to try to time the market for stock market investing.

Absolutely no one can predict what the stock market will do next. It's worth repeating: anyone who thinks they can do it is speculating, guessing, or forecasting. For most investors, time in the market should be more important than timing the market. 

In real estate investing, the same principle applies. 

You have to understand the ins and outs, and you have to know your exit strategy for every type of investment. If you're buying stocks, you have to know, 'Am I going to try to sell this in a day or a week, a month, a year?' Just as you do with a property.

Instead, the rewards of real estate investing should come over the long term, as they would in the stock market. 

Experts say it's never a good idea to try to time the market for stock market investing.

Absolutely no one can predict what the stock market will do next. It's worth repeating: anyone who thinks they can do it is speculating, guessing, or forecasting. For most investors, time in the market should be more important than timing the market. 

In real estate investing, the same principle applies. 

You have to understand the ins and outs, and you have to know your exit strategy for every type of investment. If you're buying stocks, you have to know, 'Am I going to try to sell this in a day or a week, a month, a year?' Just as you do with a property.

Instead, she says, the rewards of real estate investing should come over the long term, as they would in the stock market.