And on the other side, I've seen some vacation rentals that are otherwise nothing special but they put in a cool wall of bold wallpaper, pay for nice furnishings and develop a vibe and they outperform their competition. 

As a PM for a wide variety of units, the fun ones always outperform the cookie cutter.

I provided scenarios where one would clearly out perform the other and if you are an experienced investor who knows how to buy and operate, you will be ahead. 

From an appreciation perspective, over the long-term I don't think one will necessarily outperform the other by a significant margin.

Despite them all being deep blue tenant friendly cities, they are also the engines of wealth creation in this country and therefore over a long period (20+ years) are likely to outperform everything else.At the end of the day, you need to come up with an investment thesis you believe in.

the buzzword  is diversification - but with the purchases I made at the time - real estate far outperformed the stock market.  

Quote from @Magda Lipinska: Short-term rental (STR) will generally out-perform a long-term rental (LTR), but it's not a guarantee.

Call with the pitch that you're local, started this business due to your mom's health, and that you'll outperform and out-service a multinational company that is likely taking your calls/messages in a Vietnam call center. 

International has outperformed-- it's just the those main 7 stocks that have pulled this up.

Check out this map:Most of Texas and Florida are lagging Midwest locations like Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Columbus, etc.What do all the seasoned investors think about this?