The market is turning to a sellers market and the time will come soon that there may no longer be any great deals in the market - at that point I would still rather invest in securities instruments (mutual funds, REITs, index funds) or another investment vehicle.

I simply went from intangible assets(stocks, bonds, mutual funds) to tangible assets(real estate).

I personally do not want to invest much in upgrades but my husband feels its necessary and beneficial in the end.

I did this with my first rental for two-three years, and it was a very beneficial experience.

How passive or active it is could be compared to buying mutual fund (passive) or to day trading (active), or event to having a financial advisor (turnkey).

@Apollos Hall if you aren't into land lording, and you are bored and need a hobby, I'd say use a fraction of it to flip a house to see if you like flipping houses and invest the other portion in ETFs or mutual funds until you decide if real estate is the way you want to go with it.

Residential properties change, neighborhoods change, homes become dysfunctional, market changes can take values down as well as up.There are very few 100 year old homes in my area that remain desirable today.Commercial can suffer similar issues.Always have an exit, there are aspects beyond your control that can effect a property, the trick can be when to bail out before negative influences arrive.There are several trusts that can be beneficial in holding good properties long term, just make sure there is flexibility built in to dump a property and move on to something else. :)

I believe RDPD is BAD ADVICE that HURTS PEOPLE - it tells people that the stock market is a zero sum game and that they should not invest in mutual funds or their company 401k.Pushing the masses toward 'go in business for yourself' and 'go buy rental houses' is bad advice.

While knowing the purchase price from several years ago might be useful, I do not believe it to really be beneficial.

I'm going to call American Modern and Western Mutual.