Yes, this is an unsexy option and it doesn't offer the same tax benefits, but you would benefit from reduced volatility (so long as you don't obsess over fluctuating stock prices), greater liquidity, stronger management teams and superior assets.

As noted, if your options are Reg D, private offering vs fully registered public offering, even if you are talking Pink Sheet (OTC) stocks, you have public filing costs, annual audit requirements, and likely more on-going expenses that have to be covered by the property(s) owned by the offering.  

In fact, given current boom in Stock market, one is way better off investing there.

I also invest in other assets such as stocks, and private companies as well.

We typically do 4-5 years interest only while paying down the principle balances over time.

just like stock brokers in the day !!!

Together, we have over $200K (mostly in stock market investments), and our parents may help with the down payment.

I have witnessed many funds that started on sound principles compromise those principles when they couldn’t generate sufficient deal flow to be able to invest the capital that suddenly came into their lap. 

That is just not realistic in this current market.So in my opinion it's important to expose yourself to a large number of deals, so you can develop an intuitive sense of what's reasonable and what's not (and quickly discard the ones that aren't).And it's true that there is no way to 100% protect from fraud (and not just in passive real estate investments but even in public stocks etc.).

Using AI ;-) the answer is ""Detroit has approximately 102,330 vacant housing units, which is 28% of the city's total housing stock."