Zillow out performs any other source.

forget 1%, COC and cap rates here... focus on principal reduction, appreciation (very high) and squeeze out some minimal cash flow where you can1% rule (gcf or ncf), COC and cap rates are only accurate when looking at historical data so I am not a fan of using those for long term investment planningEquity/appreciation stacking/principle reduction always outperforms GCF long term

Real estate is not passive it should outperform passive investments like average return on stock market, bonds, and high interest savings or money market accounts.

If you're still feel like the investment is giving you acceptable returns you're in good shape (and will probably outperform your expectation).

I understand that your concern about only generating 8-9% ROI on a property is not attractive at all and usually if you just stick with blue chip stocks you will outperform that. but take into account the equity you're building on the house every month. i kind of look at it as getting paid dividends each month. even though you aren't generating cashflow, you're technically not losing money on the property. 

For example, there is no way I would predict that 2022 will outperform 2021. 

But more importantly you need to show / tell them why you are different and how you would outperform their cousin's brother's friend who is also an agent and who they have known for 10 years. 

My investments here greatly outperform my out of state ones and I have control over it here vs relying on property managers thousands of miles away.

If you are closer to retirement and can't afford a potential loss to your savings, you may not want to go this route.I've been investing in real estate for ~8 years so I have built up a level of experience that gives me confidence in my ability to far outperform the stock market through real estate investments so I take as much as I'm allowed in 401k loans. 

It takes 2-3 years for the regular lease rent amount to catch up with year 1 rent by the room rent amount  When analyzing only year 1, it’s hard to see anything making sense in our market, but if your time horizon is long enough, this market outperforms many when combining cash flow and appreciation.