I think you'll find that rental properties can give you much higher and more consistent returns than the stock market and that is before you factor in any loan paydown, tax advantages, appreciation, rent increases, etc.

If you only want a 4.8% return on $5 mil, you would probably be better served by investing in dividend stocks and bonds at that point.If you wanted the $20k/month more than the $5mil, that could be had for a lot less than $5 mil. ($2.5 mil at 9.6% return, $3.0 mil at 8% etc) of real estate.

As an investor I don't put too much stock into it being "new and shiny".

Those are yellow postcards that I have made and cut from legal sized card stock at Stapels - they are, You are in jeopardy of losing your house to foreclosure type postcards - have had real good luck with those.

We use Click2Mail to mail merge a 2-sided printed postcard, yellow green or white stock, cost is .46 each for printing AND postage.

The RE market is tied to the stock market.

You see they will treat these as stocks and the first hint oif trouble they will dump them at a loss if need be.

I have a collection of 50 or so books by my bed which I am gradually chipping away at(stocks, RE, Economics,German, etc...), and while I do find them interesting, I certainly would rather be playing guitar...I sat down and began reading the book.

By the way, Madoff’s rip-off involved…all together now…stocks.

I don't know what the multiunit stock will be like in Travelers Rest, but you can do some searching online with tax assessor (http://www.greenvillecounty.org/appsAS400/RealProperty/)Taylors and Greer on the eastside are where a lot of growth has gone -- especially out towards BMW.Best of luck with your search.