Sir, i will not advise you to put all your eggs in the basket of real estate trading.
As you have rightly pointed out, this is a game of luck and patience. It can cause a lot of anxiety and as you know property dealers sometimes take a big chunk of your cake when you want to sell or buy your property.
You can invest some money in societies of reliable developers like multi professional and dha. For example, if you buy one small plot in dha valley and one small plot in multi residencia, the chances are that you will reap a very good profit in 3 years. But if you go for larger properties, the wait and see will cause anxiety and this is a time when you need to spend your money on yourself and kids; you don't need to block it for long periods.
My suggestion is to hedge y our money in different investments. Nowadays, property market is expected to give good returns because of the new government. Plus, there is some profit to be made in govt schemes and gold (which is low these days). The best thing is to mix it up and dont go for too many non-liquidable investments.