Right now I make more passive income selling SPX stock options month to month, but then again who knows how long that will last based on this synthetic, monetary policy based economy.

Also, I flip houses in any price range but I am more interested in the bread and butter homes.

Bottom line, if you own bread and butter rentals that cater to the masses, you can still be a part of the classes.

Back buttering the tile may help as well. 

Simply put - my VR has a much higher expense ratio than a condo on the same block, and much higher than a bread & butter SFR.Lastly - I see the greatest risk to our market is local policy. 

Appraisers are supposed to be independent third parties regardless who pays them, but the reality is they know where their bread is buttered and there is a lot of art to the practice.

You can do more bread and butter neighborhoods(80-120k) which will not have as good of returns, but better tenants, and you can benefit from appreciation..  

Older agents tend to be settled in their own methods, you would have to adapt to them and like you said once they find their bread and butter investors their loyalty tend to stick with that circle (assuming their circle has a successful formula).The biggest take away would be the young investor may not be knowledgeable in all aspects but...

I personally think prudent to look at a hybrid approach and invest in various strong markets passively in deals difficult for small investor to do actively while saving active funds for your local bread n butter deals, flipping, buy n holds of SFR. 

I ended up going with another renter, but Section 8 housing is my bread in butter.