One person's crazy is another person's sanity!

While I know that return goals are different for each investor and their specific goals, it seems that a bad or low-performing deal for one person might be what another investor is looking for. 

I personally use Vanguard, but I know others like Schwab and Fidelity also have solid options.

The idea of debt-free is that if a person is going to retire and has to completely depend on the income, they don't want a severe recession surprising them and causing them to default on the debt and losing the properties.In a normal world, I would do that as well.

You go out and buy an apartment house and then hire a property manager so you don't have to personally spend time on the property.

Hi Bruce, i'll start by saying i'm a mortgage person, so please understand the context in which my response is coming from. you'd need to create CC&Rs/bylaws and establish an HOA in order to do this.

I personally would doubt I could find 30% down on that.

BTW: most owners that have hired a PMC, don't want to speak with you, much less meet with you in person to hear a hyped-up sales pitch.Also, you want to do rental arbitrage - so, you will need to be properly licensed to manage properties you do not own as required by your state & local laws.- why would an owner want to do business with someone NOT properly licensed?

The seller purchased the property to do a favor for someone and the person died.

Consider whether an LLC is right for you—it can provide liability protection but isn’t essential for a single property, as personal liability insurance and an umbrella policy may suffice.