Private Lending vs Buy & Hold

[David Sims]

For the past few years I have been lending my money on SFR fix and flips and getting a 12% cash on cash return. Recently I've been looking at the tax benefits, potential appreciation, and CAP rates on a multi family or commercial property and wanted to see if anyone has a compelling argument either way on whether private lending at a 12% return or buying and building a portfolio of rentals/multifamily/commercial property is a better path for building long term wealth? Currently I am only able to find cap rates at 6-8% on either NNN commercial or multifamily properties and the market is flooded with retail buyers fighting for the bigger deals. My cash on cash return is higher doing the private lending but I am not able to realize any appreciation or tax benefits at the end of the year on my private lending. My individual goals are similar to most I would assume -- Building my net worth and increasing cash flows while avoiding as much taxes as possible. Any insight, experience or actual numbers using leverage(financing) to build wealth would be much appreciated. I'm not willing to share my financial situation online for the world to see, but for example let's assume $500K of cash at 12% private lending vs leveraging financing and buying properties over a 10 year period.