It’s true that many property management companies are now incorporating tenant benefit packages as part of their offerings.

Very true.

I am wondering if you are making some assumptions that just aren't true. 

What is required to obtain real estate investing independence is the following1 - TRUE education in real estate (1) principles, (2) law, (3) finance.

@Jason Sung, common sense says that yes it is true.

. :)This is especially true if you rely on furnishedfinder.com as your primary lead source (which you shouldn't, but that's another post) as when you make that connection with a prospective resident, you are selling yourself as a landlord as much as you are the property as a place to live.

True although the fires this year just adds to the reasons to leave California (excessive taxation and regulation, overbearing political correctness, downtowns littered with feces, etc.).

Even if you only averaged 2.8% appreciation annually, which if you've had it 20 years I have no clue how that's true given prices have well more than doubled in that time, youre skipping over the fact that you have been benefiting from that appreciation on the ENTIRE house, not just the % you paid for.  

Demographics tell the true story.

While it's true I don't necessarily trust the pricing software algo, I really like the ease of accessing the data.