[shard]

Real estate comes with its own set of problems.

First is the large capital outlay as compared with a small web project, which means many more eggs are in that one basket.

Second is the slow turnover, which means that you may be waiting for years for a good property (since if it's a good property, there are only a few situations where the owner would sell), and if you choose poorly, you will be stuck with the poor property for many years (as no one would want to buy it).

Third is you will still have to watch out for your property becoming irrelevant, for example for a retail store, either due a downturn in the trendiness of the neighborhood driving out business, or perhaps undesirable construction in the area (e.g. a mall across the street that takes all your foot traffic).

Really the safest way to invest in real estate is through REITs, where the risk is spread across many properties.

[jaxn]

A mall across the street pretty much universally increases the value of existing retail in the area due to increased car traffic. But the mall across the street shutting down or converting to non-retail use would fit.

[shard]

Not universally true. Depending on points such as competing stores in the mall and the parking situation, number of customers can decrease for the store outside the mall. For example, you are a cellphone store with no parking and the mall will have 3 cellphone stores and a giant parking structure, the mall will hurt your business.