Comment by BizarroLand

All of you are assuming that buyers are rational, as if pump and dump in crypto was somehow isolated to the online world and not possible in the housing market. You don't have to have complete market capture to make that happen. All you need is to have enough volume that it causes potential buyers and sellers to play along.

If you're big enough, you can cause prices to ripple, get others to lose rationality and buy in on the ascent as you cash out and leave everyone else holding the bag for the crash.