STOCKS vs REAL ESTATE what's the better investment?

So You have some money saved up under the mattress, and now you want to make it work for you, Where to Invest? People in work are talking about Googles IPO while at home your family is talking about The Booming Real Estate Market. Decisions, Decisions, what to do? Well first you have to decide how much can you invest. Before we jump ahead of ourselves let me break down the difference between the Stock and Real Estate Market.

Stocks: I'll be honest, I'm not that experienced with stocks, have invested some in the past, and lost money doing so, I do speak with people who are multi millionaires on a daily basis, often I pick there brain, trying to gain the knowledge that might of been the cause of there great success, within that knowledge I have learned this about the stock market, 1. If investing in stocks with the hopes of making tons of money, be prepared, be prepared to follow up on the market every hour, up a point here, down a point there, your company just fired there CEO, Your company just hired one, a merger is in talks, someone was just indicted, this is all information that you have to be ontop of, so that your ahead of the game and you make as much as possible, and lose as little as possible. Think you spend a lot of time online now? Wait till you invest in the stock market, you'll have no choice but to outsource your daily routine,because you will be glued to the monitor. Another thing you have to realize, is that your trusting your money with a company that consists of thousands of employees, So if a manager, a VP a CEO or an Accountant does something unethical, illegal or is just careless, you could be a victim just like all the victims of Enron, Worldcom, Adelphi, Anderson and all the other companies that lost billions for there share holders. Then when that happens, do you know what you can do with your stock certificates? Use them as toilet paper that's what.

Real Estate: Now with real estate it's a whole other ball game, real estate puts you in control, the balls on your court, You actually own something, you can do various things with real estate, for instance, if you were to invest in a condo, you could rent it out, live in there, turn it into an office, or either do some minor capital improvements, or if you bought pre construction, flip (resell) it when the development is complete, its always going to appreciate, even if the market isn't so good, you will always get more then what you paid for it. Hey lets say this hot market slows down, you don't feel you should sell it yet, well then you could always either live in the unit or rent it, rent it so that the rent you will be collecting will pay off the mortgage and other expenses, in the meantime, your gaining equity, now you can wait until that market starts to rise again, remember the real estate market always has a 7 year cycle, everyone's heard the saying in real estate that goes "Location, Location, Location" well have you heard the other one that goes "Patience, Patience, Patience"

Think about this, one of the main factors that the market was booming at the beginning of the year was because all the people who work within the finance and stock markets got there bonuses which totaled 16 Billion Dollars, and where did all these stock and bond people invest there money? With there vast knowledge of the stock market, you would think they would invest in some blue chip stock or something, wrong! They put the money in real estate, these wallstreet people were buying 10 million dollar homes, like I buy DVD's when I'm at Virgin or something. That should tell you something. If you have money in stocks, and want to invest in real estate and your broker tells you not to or warns you about a bubble, or just says you should only invest X amount, You would think he is looking out for you, but he isn't, he is telling you all this, because every trade you make, everytime you buy/sell he charges you a commission or a fee or whatever, the less money he has to work with, the less he makes. Now I'm not saying that real estate brokers aren't like that, I'm a broker myself. What I am saying is that a real estate broker At 95% of the time gets his commission from the seller, so if your buying, you don't pay commission. So again, these are just some things I have picked up and learned over the years, it is up to you what you want to invest in, I'm just throwing in my two sense.
You just have to decide, at the end of the day, do you want to hold a piece of paper that says you own X percent of such and such company, or do you want to hold a set of keys to a house, an apartment or a building, something with four walls, floors and a roof? You make the decision.