Comparing investing in real property with an IRA vs doing the same outside of an IRA is comparing apples and oranges.  

There are always going to be bad apples but the vast majority are hard working people who are just trying to earn a living. 

As others stated you were comparing an apple to an orange.

It's like getting car buying advice from a car salesman, whenever the person you're asking has a financial gain at stake you really can't use their opinion as guidance.Right now you have to be a little careful with some books as instead of just being educational, they're being used as a lead magnet/funnel to help with their money raising. 

@Tim Farrell We're looking at investing our first rental property in Reno/Sparks area due to the tech companies (Tesla, Apple and so on) growing their operations in that area.

You guys were talking apples and oranges.

The methodology is the same, so you can really compare apples to apples across Canadian markets.

Apple is putting a cool billion into its new campus up there, and Apple employees would be good tenants. 

Areas in San Bernardino you may consider is the high Desert (Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley).

There are "bad apples" among both.