I even put this number next to a 7% growth in the stock market to see how it would compare and most properties peak in their difference over the stock market around year 12-15 on a 30 year loan.Do you include the loan paydown?

Some trust real estate, some trust the stock market etc. 

@Daniel Saunders,Get familiar with how to raise money from people with self-directed retirement accounts, or folks with retirement accounts who are looking for better returns with less volatility than the stock market.By definition, private lenders are people with whom you have established a relationship before discussing money.

For instance if you had a hundred grand in the house and the stock market went up 10% in that year, you lost 10k of potential earnings by having it in the house vs investing it elsewhere.

Capital expenses tend to level out over time, rents tend to increase, and trying to time new roofs & new HVAC at the same time as a market high is like trying to time the stock market.

When I'm representing a buyer and I'm up against one of these agents, I walk all over them - and my buyers love me for it.The fundamental issue is that home sales are simply not mechanistic and predictable.  

If you invested $5000 in the stock market and made 30% wouldn't you be pretty goddamn happy???

Think of real estate as any other asset class, You wouldn't buy stock because the companies headquarters is local and you can drive around and look at the building.

This mean investing in small-cap stocks or emerging markets, for instance.  

If I had to pick one factor that predicted the tenants quality it would be credit score.