Don't feel I will have enough time for the returns to compound from a mutual fund to make up for the potential volatility.

He was a volatile owner that threatened to change the titles if the board and mgmt didn't do what he wanted. 

For investment purposes, is renting in this area considered more volatile or safe compared to other vacation areas?

People always automatically assume that the higher cash flow markets have less volatility or that cash flow alone is some magic bullet that will save an investor in a downturn, but in this example it was definitely not the case. 

If you invest in areas where there is volatility in the renting base, then you might be taking more risk than you realized at first. 

As for the stock market , it's very volatile right now and there are ways to make money without the stress and getting caught up by the sharks in them by using certain stress free methods.

@William Huston My concern if the rents vs prices are that bad in multi is that they are worse in SFH and SFH has more volatility (maybe not that duplex or tri plex, but as you get larger the value is more based on rents vs general likability of it. 

I see nothing appealing in purchasing a break even asset at today’s high market prices, especially in an asset class (condos) that is more price volatile in down market periods.  

Volatility is a factor of their risk.

Stock options are liquid Real Estate options are not, because there is no market each one has to be worked out individually, RE is also less volatile in general, meaning that you would need a much longer time horizon to make it work.