So you do end up "paying" for maintenance.And please don't throw out the canard of the "problem-free" month where the PM does little work, you have to look at it through the cycle, all the hours spent on finding/placing tenants every year or two, serving 3-day notices, occasional eviction/setout, dealing with problems that crop up, arranging for repairs (God forbid getting multiple bids!!)

But if you are conservative and looking for sponsors that have the most experience (one or more full real estate cycles with no investor money lost) they are difficult to find on any of the crowdfunding platforms, because they have such loyal and enthusiastic investor bases that they have no need to be there.

There are going to be cycles, pricing is art form, dealing with guests, marketing, providing a guest experience.

Going to cash with stock/bond market investments can mean going to Section 506 investments, depending on what you invest in as some don't correlate with stock/bond markets or real estate.Two big down sides for Section 506 are (1) they are still very new since 2013 and haven't seen a full cycle yet - we don't know how bad it will be in a downturn; (2) Your funds are generally locked-in for the term of the investment, unlike stock/bond market investments that can usually be quickly sold.

I am at the end of my 529 full cycle where I invested 100% of my kid education to finish his university at Computer Science major and he graduated this year.529 is extremely flexible you could do for everything.

You would hopefully be able to see the life cycle of projects and how internal underwriting and project management works.

The mobile home park asset class indeed holds promise in our current housing landscape based on how it has performed during previous recessionary cycles.

The thing about real estate is that all parts of it go in cycles. 

Make sure your business plan factors in risks of market cycles.

I just run a few rinse cycles without adding soap.