Would like some explanation on that.

Real estate is geographically locked and can easily face economic obsolescence overtime.... and also much more expensive and harder to diversifyI am heavily invested in real estate but the 100 year historical data available for the stock market is a lot more reassuring for its long term stability then any sort of data available for real estate.  

Maybe I'm reading too much into the details at this point but thank you for the explanation. 

I’m typically operating in a specific geographical location so taxes are always with in a range that is completely corolatted with price.

Or point me to an online resource that provides an explanation?

However, we were met with a hard no from the local bank without an explanation behind it. 

I hope that provides a clearer explanation as to why it may be difficult to try to make a park out there, but who knows as every city/county decision maker is different. 

While I do think that there are a lot of reasons to remain cautious and underwrite as if there will be an adverse cycle during the life of any asset acquired today, I think the long bull run in income property has a lot of runway left in a lot of geographical areas.Your family is smart to save some dry powder to take advantage of opportunities, but I suspect that if they are waiting for a reset of pricing and an opportunity to buy at a discount to today's pricing they'll be waiting a while.A key difference between you and your dad is you have a lot more time to make your money back if you get into the market and subsequently get wiped out. 

However, while I've spent the time educating myself, there's one topic that still confuses me, and I was hoping the BP community could provide a comprehensive explanation.

Other investors on BP will more than likely have property is similar geographic area, and they can provide contact of a good loan officer.