Newbie Question About Single Family Houses

[Shawn Mai Li]

Hello! I am a senior in high school with an interest in investing and real estate. I am very new to this so I've been reading the guides (which encouraged me to interact rather than just lurk) and taking notes. I am about 4 chapters in (I don't want to cram too much info) and have a couple questions. While reading about single family housing, I read that "in certain areas, rent from SFRs won't have positive cashflow". My question is: What benefit is there when the cashflow isn't positive? I was under the impression that positive cashflow is how you make money.