What kind of investor are you? Active or Passive - Property or Paper?

[Darren Eady]

For years I only purchased rental properties. I own many now. Some are good and some are not so great. The last two years are the first two years in twenty that I made money overall on my rentals. I'm hoping the headaches will pay off at retirement?

Over the last five years, I started buying mortgage notes instead of rental properties. I've enjoyed this type of investing more than owning properties. I've realized that even though I'm elbows deep in real estate every day with my lending business, as an investor, I would rather buy passive real estate investments and not deal with the tenants, toilets or trouble.

I'm wondering how many people are like me? Which type of investing do you prefer and why? I would love to hear from people that own properties and mortgage notes to see which they prefer and why.