Originally Posted by
notEnuf
If you let someone occupy at below market rates you are losing money and artificially suppressing the market. That's not runnning a business or investing.
It depends. There is also a cost to having to find new tenats because the rates increased and the previous tenats left because of the rate hikes. Not to mention the time and energy that goes into that process of screening new tenats.
Originally Posted by
notEnuf
I got out because my time was more valuable and the return on the capital was about the same as a diversifed large cap equity fund. I'm no longer responsible for or have to manage anything.
This is very true. Real estate, if done right, has slightly better returns than market rates, but it's higher risk. Also it's more work (not really passive) and requires a downpayment usually. Not to mention it's not very liquid. But the advantage is of course that it can be leveraged if you're willing to take the risk, AND, ultimately someone else is funding it.