The most dangerous city in California and just not somewhere I feel comfortable.

Stocks have ease of liquidity, you can use leverage via margin, however, there are some dangers and downsides to that, and you can easily diversify in stocks.In RE, costs to sell are much higher, liquidity is time consuming, and costly, but leverage is with ease and the tax benefits far outweigh any stock options.

I have warned several newbies about the dangers of real estate and it takes years to know what you are doing, not just several months of reading.  

LLCs and LPs structure and form have two distinct sections of statute in NC.And given that "every CPA I talk to tells me the same thing" I conclude that these entity structures (LLCs, LPs) in CA are radically different than the 49 other states.

No kidding the idea that real estate investing is passive is one of the biggest misleading and dangerous statements full stop.. 

THAT is a big and dangerous assumption. 

If you're planning to house hack, it's going to be even more dangerous due to health concerns.

An important distinction that many people who don't live here neglect to consider is the difference between living in the mountains vs next to the mountains. 

Kinda like getting a virus and having your body respond by getting a fever to kill the virus -- the fever can be dangerous, but it's necessary to fix the underlying issue.

When you don't care what anyone thinks of you, you have reached a dangerously awesome of freedom.