i admit i sat on my hands

Hi all, I rarely post in here, but I pretty much read everything. I honestly can see both sides of the argument (bulls & bears) re property. I'm actually torn between whether I should sell now or not. I've got my finger on the trigger ready to sell. Nearly a year ago, I could see that the US was faultering. Therefore, I cashed in nearly half of my super, just in case. One thing I have learnt (mostly the hard way), is that you live and learn and you learn from your mistakes. Therefore, I've always been mindful of "when the US sneezes .....". I reacted with selling my super and 60% of me wanted to sell my properties. There were circumstances as to why i didn't. Anyway, had i gone with my gut/theory, I would be out of property at the moment. The other 40% of my thinking was that the fundamentals in Australia are much different to the US.

The big lesson I learnt was to not sit on your hands and wait for property to come back 30-40%. I got out of property at the end of 2001. I sat back and told all that wanted to listen that this just can't keep going. There is no way. I thought i would wait for a huge drop in prices and then I would be laughing. Well, instead of hanging onto my properties, I missed seeing them double (one trippled). I remember standing in an elevator talking about property in 2002 and someone said, "just get in, don't wait for it to come back". I've always remembered that moment. Well, with my tail between my legs I jumped back in, in 2005. I bought a property in a very good area, but it was purely throgh a lifestyle choice more than investment. At that point, I thought the market was still going to come off, but i wanted to live in that area. I was 95% confident I would have basically little or no growth over the next 5 years. Well, i couldn't believe it when it started to go up. I was 95% sure it wouldn't. It just had to come back 30% because how could people pay such ridiculous prices. Instead of coming off 30% which i thought it would, it actually has put on about 35% since then. I actually bought another (with a friend) very very reluctantly. After all, I have been a property bear for so so long now. That too went up and I had to eat my words. Being a property bear over my time has cost me hundreds of thousands. I've learnt some serious lessons. Unfortunately, "there is still a bear in there" right now. I see the rest of the world with a cold (nearly pneumonia) and surely we must get it too. I'm still torn as to what to do. Do i live and learn (learn by my mistakes) or do I go with what I think will/might happen. I suppose if it comes off 30% like everyone is saying, I will be back to where i was 3 to 4 years ago. There is plenty of negative news out there telling me why i should sell. I suppose in times like these, I have to go with what i have learnt, especially to NEVER EVER sell your property.

As worried as I am and there are plenty of people/newspaper articles etc telling me why Australia is about to fall apart, I suppose a fair minded person will look at both sides and try make the correct decision. The interest rate cut today is only a positive for our real estate market. I keep thinking that, what happens when the US housing market turns, and it will at some stage. If it does sooner rather than later, will we catch a cold?

It has probably been posted here before, but here is a good read from a bulls perspective (september)

http://www.citylifeproperty.com/g_freeappraisal.asp

It's funny how we tend to post or only take notice of the articles that we want to take notice of.