Pretty much true of real estate too..............

     Probably the biggest reason it's so hard to outperform the market, other than the fact that competition has heated up so much over the past few decades, is because most portfolio managers either don't have the requisite patience to think and act for the long term or their investors don't (it's kind of a chicken or the egg problem).  Academic research and real world results of many of the great investors of all-time show that there are strategies that beat the market over longer time frames.  It just takes extreme patience and discipline, something not enough investors have.

-Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense:  Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity In Any Investment Plan