What is the point of investing in real estate NOW?

[Diane G.]

When I bought into San Francisco 10 years ago, after 20% down, I was still losing $1K ish per month per door.... I had to work my day job and saved every penny to support my real estate enthusiam..... 

But I had hope at the time.... I knew I would refi my rate from 8% (at close) to hopefully 6% later on... I knew the price would appreciate, I knew rent would go up slowly....And surely, all of the above happened....

Now, I recently ran the numbers on numerous potential deals, from Bay Area to TX to Phoenix to Tahoe to Sonoma County, from SFH to dupex to fourplex to 8 units... Nothing generates more than 4-5% return, and after debt service, I got left with almost nothing....AND, there is nothing to look forward to today, rates are not going any lower, rents are not going significantly higher any time soon, and value are not going much higher either...If you can't make money in today's market, you cant make money ever....

So why work your butt off to make "$150 a door" kind of return? You can still flip and make money, but then you are taking on RE as a full time job.... For those of us with a day job and want to go passive, is there a point in investing in RE now?