While I certainly agree with that, it's also interesting that real estate is primarily a SERVICE industry in that our business model does rely heavily in part on acquiring and maintaining good tenants to provide consistent and timely cash flow each month.

@Tish Bell I am heavily involved with RE in Western PA for over 20 years. i dont know DFW market but I do know there are home runs in every market.

The county, in essence, wants in excess of two months of what the property's rental value is currently.Even living in San Francisco, a very liberal and heavily taxed county, my effective tax is approximately 1% of my property's current value.In researching this issue, I read the following quote from the tax assessor:Home values have dropped 22% in the past two years but that doesn't mean homeowners will see any tax relief."

We've decided to move on from STR's in Nashville given that the city seems to be fighting it pretty heavily

I've been leaning heavily on Angie's List lately. 

I doubt the OP would head any advice given by anyone based on his dismissal of the quality information given by heavily experience and knowledgeable people throughout this thread. 

Your friend thinks she is doing something "super grown-up" when in fact I'd argue it's quite the opposite...BUT the millennial generation has been so heavily indoctrinated to be perpetual consumers that it's the status quo!

But I'm not so heavily vested that it would be a major hit on my investment portfolio.

He has a money manager .. one of those type that just charge a yearly fee and he relies on his man very heavily to ( as you point out try to figure out what to invest in when you have quite a bit to invest)..

To me at least, this is definitely not the time to be speculating in RE markets heavily driven by oil prices.