The WHY of Investing in Real Estate

[Don Konipol]

IMO, the financial reasons for investing in real estate include 
1- Asset Preservation

2- Increase Wealth

3- Current Income

4- Tax Minimization

While these four are not mutually exclusive, the more you benefit in one area the less will be the benefit in the others, given normal market conditions, unless you uncover something everyone else has missed. (Possible, but you need to be a VERY ACTIVE investor to do this; waiting for a broker to turn you on to a deal doesn’t do it).  

At this stage of my life (71) years old and more concerned with estate planning than career advancement, my top priority is asset preservation on an INFLATION ADJUSTED basis.  Hence, I want relatively low risk, but with a return that at the very least maintains the purchasing power of my net worth.  The low risk requirement eliminated lots of investment types like trading crypto, venture capital, ultra high leverage real estate deals - except for maybe a very small percentage of my investable assets.

Since I’ve already accomplished tax minimization by managing to hold the majority of my assets in a retirement plan and paid the taxes to turn that plan into a Roth, number 4 is not a concern.

I do invest for current income as second place to wealth preservation, and increase wealth as third place.  The increase wealth occurs because my portfolio yields a current income of about 11% as a mixture of notes and real properties ( a majority of which are held in syndications), and this is not needed to live on.  Additionally, I do allocate a minor percentage of my net worth to investment with more growth potential, like land development deals.

I am curious as to how other people view this, and what their primary and secondary investing reasons are.  So, if I may inquire, first, do you agree with these 4 reasons for real estate investing. Is there another financial reason for investing that I missed?  
What stage of your “investing” life are you in.  Which of the above is most important to you?  Which is least important? 

Finally, what investment do you make to accomplish your financial goals?  What real estate types do you invest in?