Financial Advisors vs Investors

[Colin Reid]

My wife and I have been interviewing financial advisors lately, all CFP's from reputable firms, and all fiduciaries. We've reached a point where we have enough income from our day jobs that we feel we need some help diversifying and directing it to meet our goals. We've both started learning as much as we can about REI and personal finance (separate but related topics in our opinion), especially since we got married last year. I've been a buy and hold investor for about 3 years, together we own 4 properties (including my home, which will get rented eventually) and aside from those four mortgages, we are totally debt free. We plan to buy more, and I may do real estate part- or full-time when I get out of the military.

But in listening to several financial podcasts, and at least one of the interviews with a CFP, I hear a lot of warnings against real estate. One advisor even said "when the market peaks, I would get rid of all those houses." Could be good advice, but there's a lot more to consider when making such a decision, obviously.

So is this anti-real estate mentality a result of lack of understanding, or seeing other clients' lack of success in REI? Why are so many financial professionals against owning real estate?