I don't get it. I just don't get it. I mean every time a boom collapses, there is no warning. I think it must be those darn naysayers. You know them - every time things start going well and everyone is making a buck, they always predict doom and gloom. Sure enough they scare  enough people into selling which starts a selling panic, and well, the rest is history.

Certainly couldn't be that booms are fuelled by greed - and bound by their very nature to fail.

Nah, no way.

Couldn't be.

Oh, by the way, here are a few headlines from a recent RENX (www.renx.ca) commercial real estate news feed (December 10, 2010 to be exact).

CFIB releases municipal spending data claiming increases are unsustainable

Corruption in Canada: Les fleurs du mal

Is America getting more corrupt?

Top 7 Enmax execs earned almost $6M in compensation: Report

There was also another headline about new REITs. Now call me cynical, but the whole concept of a REIT is beginning to make me wonder. I mean we the unitholders allegedly own the real estate but the management runs the show and just pays us whatever dividends are left over.

This kind of reminds me of a new "business model" that appeared during the recent boom. A supposedly well respected investment organization promoted a model to its subscribers whereby the subscriber finds investors looking to invest in real estate but not have the ownership headaches. The busines model was that the subscriber would find the properties, then the investor would pay for it, and the subscriber would manage it. At the end of the day, the subscriber owned half the property as a "fee" for finding and managing it.

Now I don't know very much but I do know that that just doesn't add up with my limited math skills. I mean I do the same thing, I find properties, and colleagues of mine will manage them for the owners, and well, we only charge 3-10% of income.

Ahh, I just must be one of those naysayers.

Must be.

Couldn't be anything else.