However, it can be at times a bit hard as the low-hanging fruit is gone and there's a lot of eyes (including institutional money) on the sector.  

Quality over quantity.This massive scale & leverage philosophy on the lower entry/lowest hanging fruit markets is excellent for spreadsheets.

But I agree with you, if you can diversify and do both, then do both, but I'd put more eggs in the stock market basket if I had to do it over again.

It’s like planting a tree – it takes some effort upfront, but you get to enjoy the fruits pretty quickly.What's More Important?

Don't take it for granted and don't put all the eggs in the same basket.

In 10 years, when you have a nice portfolio of homes and they're cash flowing nice chunks of money, you'll appreciate the amount of time, energy and effort you put into your business and will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.When I first went to the cpa I've been using for the last 5 or 6 years and explained what I was doing, he said, he's heard it before.

Fruit-cake maybe, wack-job sure, but the psyco is a smart psyco. 

You could also have a basket filled with nice rolled towels at the foot of the bed.  

So, I think it definately takes more savvy these days, but there is still low hanging fruit in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida everywhere I look. 

However, these properties won't be low hanging fruit.