They are making an effort to change the perception.

(As a caveat, my home market is Lexington, not Louisville, so perhaps my perceptions are skewed a bit. 

I wrote a blog on the realities of SEC vs the perceptions people have. 

I don't necessarily have empirical data to show the number of investors that want to invest passively, but I have been talking to and working with investors going on 11 years now and my perception is that passive investors far outnumber active investors.When you see all of the demand for Turnkey product, it is easy to realize that if you are willing to work hard and develop a quality, service company, you can enter that market and get a piece of that demand.  

<g> Something that does amuse me is the apparent perception that one person's profit is somehow more valuable than another person's profit.

I am stating that there could be the perception that the buyer ends up even more nervous (especially a first time homebuyer) By using some type of representation (your cousin), he get's to get his home on the market and in the face of thousands of realtors, who have ten's of thousands of buyers, which is significantly more than your cousin would have gotten from listing (and selling for that matter) on his own.

So... biggest drawbacks: time-commitments, subjective perception of the guest experience, constant re-evaluation and readjustment due to competition and external market factors.

SFH is best suited to those investors less centered on cash flow and more centered on their perception of ease of management and appreciation.

Alex the PERCEPTION is that mom and pop tenants think they are more valuable then they actually are.I do retail all day long but on the transaction side buying the centers with clients and then development myself.Tenant rep brokers is a very low income business.

@Nate Soufan As real estate is moving more towards a virtual investing model and people prefer being contacted virtually than in person (no door to door,) I suggest marketing keeping that in consideration.Also people's perceptions are different.