Passive Unleveraged Investment?

[Franklin Schmidt]

I have no intrinsic interest in real estate. My interests, in order, are:

1. capital preservation
2. stable returns
3. yield

So why am I here? Because I think unleveraged residential rental real estate in middle America best satisfies my interests. I have researched many investment options including the usual - stocks, bonds, and commodities. None of these meet my needs today and all are overpriced.

I have read books on real estate investment and these books are badly misaligned with my interests. The books advocate leverage to increase yield at the expense of risk to capital preservation. They assume active real estate investing when I have no interest in this.

When I invest in stocks, I buy mutual funds. I have neither the interest nor the knowledge to pick individual stocks. So I pay an expert, the mutual fund manager, to do this. Why isn't there something analogous to this for residential real estate? This is what I want. Yes I know the standard real estate options like REITs and real estate operating companies. These generally have leverage, aren't restricted to residential real estate, and aren't nearly as transparent as a mutual fund. So they don't satisfy my needs.

Any suggestions to solve my investment dilemma would be greatly appreciated.