Is promoting buying rentals due to a conflict of interest?

[Joe S.]

My question is… Do people promote buying rentals due to some sort of  personal benefit/conflict of interest?

From a birds eye view and in a perfect world people would buy a property and their tenants would pay for it. The proud property owner/Investor would make a little bit of a difference as they go alone. A good way to gain money for retirement, etc..
What most people fail to realize is that most of the turnovers at least the ones I’ve seen the house will need some repairs before a new tenant is placed. One month vacancy can eat up all the cash flow. The Property Manager will take half the first months rent if not the whole first months rent.  A large ticket item could eat up the cash flow for years out.  

Property managers don’t pay for problems. The owner does. 

Lenders don’t pay for problems. The landlord does.

The real estate agent doesn’t pay for problems. The landlord does.  

People that think they’re going to quit their day job because they bought some rentals. You Might actually need to get a night job to go with their day job just to pay for repairs etc on their rentals.

I realize there are some people that bought right number years ago in extremely good areas that’s singing the how smart they are song, but that is not the case for most of the landlords I have witnessed.  

Lenders are saying rentals are great. (they’re not buying themselves.)

Many real estate agents are  saying rentals are great, that are not buying themselves.

If you had a roofer come to your house and look at your roof do you think they would recommend a roof?
If you went to a surgeon, do you think they would recommend a surgery? 

What are your thoughts?

[Bill B.]

Why do people who say the only people doing well today are the people who bought long ago (10+ years)?  Do they think we were killing it day one 10 years ago? It just takes time for most investors to become “rich” off real estate. You can become free relatively quickly. (Compared to the usual 30-40 year path.) do they think people with a million or millions in stock just got there? Or did they spend 10-20 years investing?

Start investing today and in 10-20 years you to can be told, to your face. “Your success is only because you started back in 2025 when prices were lower, it was easier, etc etc. You couldn’t do it today…”. 
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