Quote from @Pokie Maynard: There should be a class action law suit again multifamily mindset that has ripped off so many people and tore their lives apart in a horrible way.

Long term buy and hold RE in good locations is probably one of the lowest risk investment vehicles IMO, similar to blue chip aristocrat stocks except even less risky because even long-established companies can go out of business but real estate very, very rarely ever goes to zero. 

Personally my stock portfolio (mostly very safe, set and forget/ "lazy portfolio", un-speculative "aristocrat stocks" and some basic high dividend yield ETF's like Vanguard's VYM which pays 3% dividends and has a 30 yr. average compound return of 10%) is doing much better than if I were to use those funds to pay down my very low interest, not at all over-leveraged real estate debt. 

Why buy the real estate equivalent of a penny stock when you can afford to buy blue chip aristocrat dividend stocks (Class A multifamily properties in good locations with actual strong fundamentals like population growth, a diverse and recession-resistant job market, limited supply and high demand, affordability, and consistent long-term appreciation)?

Then, they do a bunch of internal hokie pokie stuff inside the bank and put the property on the MLS and hope for the best.

I looked into dividend aristocrats stocks with 10-12% dividends but most are now valued at almost half. 

You have those dividend aristocrats doing near or at 5% dividends.. 

In fact, many invest in a group of stocks tracked and known as the "Dividend Aristocrats", which are companies that have raised their dividend every single year for at least 25 years straight ... on top of that they track the "payout ratio" which computes the percentage of earnings that are paid out as dividends, to ensure that is stable, has some margin, and the company for example is not having to take on extra debt just to cover its dividend to investors.

With 3% COC, you could buy a dividend aristocrat and make more with less headache.

Sometimes companies go out of business, but look up how many aristocrat stocks have gone to zero recently compared to the number of foreclosures.