I don't know where you guys live, but I can give you a real-life example from my part of the globe. We are currently in a red-hot real estate market and people are flipping houses like crazy (buying them, updating/renovating and then selling at a higher price). It seems that if you are into the building trades or have buddies who will do the work cheaply for you, you can make money this way, but if you have to hire local contractors, good luck. For one thing, they are all too busy working for other people doing renovations since the market is so hot and as well, the cost of renovations done by them often eats up any profit you might have made from flipping.
Generally, I think real estate is a good investment, but not necessarily for a quick return on your money. The trick is to find a market to buy into before it becomes red-hot - which is just as tricky as trying to figure out when to buy (or sell) a stock.
If none of you has any real estate experience and you can't put the sweat equity in yourselves, I think it's hard to make tons of money flipping houses unless you really research the area and find one on the verge of taking off - it's still a risk even then.
Just my two cents worth, as a nonprofessional ...
