A recent article by David Bauder in the Associated Press discussed the fact that real estate investing television and the real estate market seem curiously at odds at the moment. While reality television depicting house flipping and providing a venue to learn real estate investing continues to do well, the real estate market has noticeably cooled.

Bauder likens the television shows to out-of-touch developers, noting that TV programmers continue to tout real estate deals featuring a fast sale while many properties across the country languish in "for sale" status. The A&E Network's "Flip This House," TLC's "Flip That House," and Bravo's "Flipping Out" all continue to rake in ratings and advertisers.

The networks are even expanding with new shows. TLC will be launching a new show, "Date My House" as well as five other related programs supposedly to help people learn real estate investing, yet the programs we've seen thus far are fairly untypical of the commonplace investing dilemmas investors face throughout North America. HGTV enjoyed some of its best ratings this past January, and a good part of that success stems from real estate shows.

Nine of HGTV's most popular 10 shows deal with real estate. Shows such as "House Hunters," "My First Place," "Hidden Potential," "Buy Me" and "Design to Sell" seem to draw in viewers in spades. HGTV even did a special in February about buying a first home.

As foreclosures increase, the economy goes from "Bad to Worse", we're witnessing the worst type of "learn real estate investing" shows that can be offered - an often glitzy, glamorous look to the upside of real estate investing….that mostly glosses over the fact that the true "reality" is that sellers nationwide are frustrated in trying to sell their properties. Since ratings are what television networks need to show advertisers in order to garner ad revenue, isn't it a wonder why the television shows sometimes reveal an interesting lack of reality then?

There is an upside to the current programming about house flipping - as long as you are not using the shows to learn real estate investing.

Brad Wozny, writer and creator of "8 FIGURE Empire™: A Proven System That Shows Investors How to Generate a 6 Figure Bank Account and Realize 7 Figure Real Estate Gains in as Little as 7 Months," points out that these shows are basically infomercials for real estate professionals (e.g. Realtors).

The high ratings plus this feature can make a reality show a powerful venue for real estate pros. Don't learn real estate investing practices from TV shows is the bottom line - instead consider aligning yourself with a proven real estate investing mentor to learn real estate investing from the ground up.