Would like some cash flow down the road, but that could be from dividends or pm fees.My brother likes the returns available and hard assets in REI compared to stocks & bonds. 

@Ben ArmstrongI will pass this on to our retirement account holders that invest in investments outside the stock market.

For over 20 years I have been active in Real estate , 20 years I have tried every single investments in the book :Private Equity , Stocks and Bonds portfolios,Hedge funds,real estate development, commercial and residential real estate.  

And what if the stock market crashes? 

Right now I'm the owner of a successful used/refurbished appliance business, and I'm also an investor in paper assets such as stocks, bonds & mutual funds (that have low expenses and therefore are not the kinds of paper assets that should be avoided). 

I think he is moody because he is heavily into stocks/bonds and the traditional way of work until you've "earned" retirement.

Supposedly stocks yield 12% each year on average.That said, all investing is also a negotiation.

My wife and I have excellent credit and a significant amount of $ in cash / liquid investments but rather than trigger tax gains by selling stocks, I was hoping to find a hard money lender for the purchase.

Seems to me regardless of what the stock market does(look at last week) real estate is always going to provide cash flow for me.  

Personally I don't get it - I thought placing investment properties in LLC's was a stock standard business practice in Real Estate, so why is Wells Fargo getting so obstructive about it - does it leave them exposed somehow?