What is the best part of the book?

I find there are many ways to monitor funds flow to get a sense for who is investing and where is money investing. From a macro perspective, I listen to the CNBC/MSNBC/FOX news channels periodically to get a sense of what is happening in the stock market and where the money is flowing to or from (bonds, individual stocks, and mutual funds - foreign or domestic). There is a lot of coverage and a lot of opinions. I find the more I listen, the more I learn and get accustomed to the general pulse and investor sentiment. For a local perspective, I listen to local talk radio in my city that has a couple of call-in shows that discuss the local, regional and national market conditions in real estate and investments. I also have a few real estate contacts that I keep in touch with where I ask them about what areas of real estate are moving and get specific data to support their answers (such as which areas of residential homes are selling: high, mid or low end homes, multifamily, apartments, which are in abundant supply and which are in short supply, number of days on market, etc., and which areas of town seem to be hotter than others and the all important reasons why they are hot. I read the local newspaper and specifically look at the real estate section. Especially in this market, there are deals to be found. You will probably develop your own approach, but this is some of what I do to get a feel for the flow of funds.

"Smart money" will use REITs as a vehicle of investment. If the smart (big) money is moving into REITs, there is a reason for it, not because of sheer speculation.

Find REITs with large cap that have a good size of residential property in the portfolio. Then use a tool (you have to search for one unless you have an online trading account, then you probably have one in it) that gives accumulation/distribution data (which way is the money going, in or out).

You can also get a pulse by looking at REIT price trends and home builder index trends.

Pay little attention to main stream media. They are a lagging indicator, a very very lagging indicator. Listening to main stream media will ensure you are always late to the party on either side and are almost always wrong in their Nostradamus-like predictions (sleight of hand?).

Also, looking nationally will only tell you if the market as a whole is trending. Local markets will vary hugely. There are a ton of tools out there that track local market trends. However, if you increase the accuracy of assessment of your local market when the national market is trending in your favor. If you are investing in a area that has a strong economy, job and population growth it will be hard to go wrong on anything right now. The key to it all is timing, but in a area like that, even a misjudgment in timing will not turn out to be a mistake.

Don't wait until trends are "obvious". By then, you will miss out on a lot of opportunity.