After all, I feel like a good majority of real estate investors are people who don't want to hold fiat, and they think most stocks are over valued.

And you'll have to consider their time to buy the materials, the hours to return them, and the re-stocking fee (when applicable).

Menomonee Falls is interesting in particular, because it is attracting huge amounts of money (several new 500k subdivisions, think: tax basis) while there is a good stock of older rental grade homes. 

As decision-maker, I asked every potential candidate, as I looked them dead in their eyes - how's your credit?  

Unless you are dead set on this house, move along.

The technology being developed for driverless vehicles is anticipated to change the same old approach to automotive stocks that has plagued the industry for years.

I really don't know, but chasing appreciation is basically like predicting the best performing stock for next year. 

Let's ignore the fact that 80% of the homes that Cutting Edge sells are custom-designed, not stock, and focus on the fact that NONE of the manufacturers with scale sell directly to homeowners.

Usually the more doors per apartment building and/or the more money you put down, the more cash flow per door.You could also look into buying businesses (owning them, not running them), good old fashioned stock market investing (not retirement accounts, im talking brokerage accounts so you can actually use the moeny before retirement age) , cryptocurrency investing, or a mixture of all of them. 

Some of these small towns are on the decline and their housing stock has higher vacancies.