I think you need to compared apples to apples through to the end to see the comparison. ..........................Lets say you buy a 100K house and put 20K down. 20K is YOUR investment, NOT 100K.

If the schools are high ranking, you may be able to demand a higher rent so they get into that zip code, so they can get into those schools.An example for Silicon Valley - the public schools in Cupertino, CA (where Apple's campus lives) are insanely highly rated. 

@Jeremy BlevinsHere’s an apples to apples study.

Sure we have a few apples in the bunch, but we saw great cooperation from our tenants. 

I also have good tenants but one bad apple can have a bigger impact on an SFR, I think.- Maintenance - roofs etc are more for a single-family per unit than a larger MF building which has 8-12 units in a typical garden-style apartment.Again, neither of these are totally hands-free operations unless you want to invest as a Limited Partner in someone else's deal, just slightly different headaches ;-)

I was looking for a new financial/real estate podcast on Apple, and BP was one of the first that came up! 

@Don Konipol maybe you can forward the link to the members of APPL.

He has a technology background and used to be responsible for marketing of microprocessors at Motorola to companies like Apple.

My friends are talking about investing in Austin as well (we are from CA), they've been there and think it's a nicer place among TX, young and vibrant place with some companies like Apple or Amazon.

It's the bad apple that spoils the bunch.