Their rental portfolio also yields much more than the cost of the debt and thus prepaying the debt rapidly is not very strategic.

Chris,I'm grateful for your post, as it's yielded some great info.

And a scan of investment only might yield an entirely different number.And of course we both recognize how highly regionalized and seasonalized things can be. 

Flipping to sell each unit would yield more total profit, but different risk.

Some people want to give incredibly low rates, but you don't want to get stuck carrying a note that yields too little.

I know that sometimes the areas closest arent the best yields, but bedroom communities that many students or employees commute from. 

My portfolio consisted of condos, small commercial buildings, and notes.In 2001 I set up two private investment funds, one for investing in high yield notes (both purchased at discount and originated) and the other for investing in real properties.  

About as passive as you can get* High Yielding Dividend Stocks * REITS * Buying Mortgage Notes (professionally managed by a mortgage administrator)* Professionally managed high end luxury corporate rental property

@Kim Durst what I see a lot of folks doing who are ready to move from more active to more passive investments is NNN commercial RE (may even be able to 1031, or reverse 1031 considering you’ve already sold most of your properties, to avoid some cap gains), high-yield dividend stocks like an ETF heavily weighed with aristocrat stocks, or “becoming the bank” by getting into the lending game.

It is also painful watching my hard earned dollars wasting away to inflation while sitting in my Ally "high yield" savings account waiting for an opportunity.