Why not put the money in the bank at 8.5% for the next *unstable* year and spend the year educating yourself about property dealing.
As this market cools you will again be able to make low offers and get your real estate at a "wholesale" price. This idea of simply buying at todays price and hope and pray the price goes up is not the way to deal successfully in real estate. If a house is worth e.g. $450K you need it for $380K - this is the mind set you need to get. Create e.g. $70K in wealth on paper at the time of purchase and you can't go wrong. Sure it's work getting your value sense and continually making low offers that get refused but you only need one property at a time and those bargains are always out there somewhere. A retailer doesn't buy goods at current market prices and nor should you.
Go to the library and borrow a copy of the Australian book Charles Goodwin's The Secrets Of Wealth Creation Revealed and read the three chapters on real estate dealing several times.
There will be fortunes soon to be made again in real estate so learn now and you will never look back.
