I also support the point of thinking at least 10 years ahead and only buy properties your future self will be happy.

Some of us in the industry are fighting to help with that for the limited partner, and hopefully that comes to fruition in the near future.  

Most of our money has been invested in the stock market since we moved to the US in 2017, but we are looking to diversify and generate passive, long-term income.

Data, data, data.We do NOT guess on appreciation, we have data and fact driven details, knowledge and insight of what the future is, the numbers, and fact based future casting for EVERYTHING including median home price etc.. 

In other words, if one property requires a major repair, reserves from other properties can help cover the expense, reducing the need for each individual property to have a fully stocked reserve at all times.

Once things are stable again, then you can educate yourself and focus on how to improve your investments to protect you against this situation in the future.

I have interest in trying one out in the future. 

Do you see blockchain and smart contracts as the future of how we deal in real estate, or are there just too many hurdles to get over?

That's good to know for future analysis that a property manager is more than 10% though! 

And it all thus incentivizes the correct future actions of others.