Basically you need investors who have a lot of cash parked in a money market and aren't sure what to do with it --- the stock market is volatile but they know their savings are losing value every month because of inflation.

Despite all of the noise and volatility in the stock market, positive job growth numbers came out yesterday which show the country is still creating jobs, trade talks are calming and inflation is under control. 

The STR market is extremely volatile with regulations changing regularly.

I think the election year 2020 will have a lot of volatility and we're due for a down turn.

And it’s volatile unlike cash flow in Re most of the time!

Choose different markets that have room to grow in median price compared to 2007 or stable market that are not volatile to have huge buyer or seller market swings.

The new appraised value does not matter because commercial real estate is volatile and they want me to have 20% real money in the investment.

So it has the lowest volatility and is the safest but also has the lowest projected returns.

Advantage I see of the notes is less volatility.

. $500k won't buy you much in San Fran but is a pretty healthy budget in Jax.One smaller factor is that Duval county doesn't charge impact fees on new construction (and is the only county in Florida that does not) which is great for developers but not so great when there's no money for maintaining our schools.https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190423/duval-voters-to-decide-on-proposed-sales-tax-referendum-to-pay-for-replacing-repairing-renovating-schoolsAlso this isn't Florida or Jacksonville specific, but in times when the stock market is particularly volatile real estate investing becomes more appealing even with lower returns.Personally as an investor I find all this out-of-town investing a bit annoying (increased competition and increased prices) and am concerned that these properties potentially aren't well maintained.