Invest as a property owner or private lender?

[Craig Hewitt]

A bit of a philosophical question here, but looking for anyone who's done some of the in-depth calculations of these types of investments. The question is if I'm just getting into real estate investing and have 100k to put into the market annually is the accumulation of wealth larger as a private lender or a property owner of SFH rentals.

I can't even imagine how to start calculating this, so I'm asking for some help with considerations. The question in my mind immediately would be what is the 'value' in terms of wealth creation of potential for appreciation of the underlying asset as a property owner in a long-term holding situation versus beginning to make a return on my investment now as a lender of money. The power of compounding interest sure would be on the side of the lender model, but there's no chance for capital appreciation over time. Would the compounding of interest over time make up the difference for the lack of appreciation? I live in an area that I do not expect to appreciate significantly over the coming years (at least in the markets I'm comfortable investing in), but is a stable market for mid tier rentals.

Thanks to everyone for making BP such a valuable asset. I just found the site a few weeks ago and have been hovering pretty regularly since then.

Interested to see people's insights on this topic.