Financial Planner Advised Against New Investments

[Latimer Luis]

Really quickly about myself: 36/married/california and started in REI (out of state buy & hold) about 2.5 yrs ago.

I started looking for a CFP just to get a third party to look into our finances and advise us on where to allocate our money. I explained that my goal was to acquire 1 property a year (through loans) for the next 5 years while I still had a W-2 to help prepare for retirement.

After he put together our fin plan, he advised me that I should hold off on these properties and instead concentrate on putting more money into my 401K (currently only putting 5%, no employer match) and to pay down the existing loans for two of my other properties. (All less than 6% rates).

I’m not asking whether his advice is correct, but whether I should be verifying this somehow? I feel like I would have to pay another retainer to someone else just to validate the plan.

Most CFP's I have been talking to don't seem to factor real estate investing into their long term strategies for retirement. He at least knew a little bit about REI and understood what I was trying to do, so thats why I moved forward with him. I was hoping to get a fresh set of eyes on our financial goals, so I guess his advice was exactly what I had asked for. Curious to know how others have worked with their CFP's regarding their investments and if they went against advice like this anyway?