And now a post more in the vein of the thread premise:
I do real estate investing. Buy single family houses and rent them out. I'm a small player with no dreams of being big. I know the way I do things isn't scalable, but it also keeps my costs and risk down. The stock market is less work but the returns aren't as high, so it takes more time. And I'd like to retire tomorrow if I could.
I'm kind of stalled right now. I'm stalled because it's hard to find a house I'd want to buy for a price I'm willing to pay right now and because I got roped into contracting for my old college friend. Not the end of the world because it's the slow time for rentals, there are, as I mentioned, not a lot of houses on the market at decent prices--and even if there were, finding windows, appliances, and other things to renovate a house is hard to impossible right now, and a week of part time work pays more than a month's rent on my most expensive rental. Pile up money to reduce the loan I need for my last purchase.
Well my friend knows accounting. And computers. I, on the other hand, do NOT. So I'm not terribly thrilled to be working in accounting and computers for months longer than I agreed to--carts full of cash or not. And he does NOT know real estate investing. But he kind of understands the potential it has. Awhile back he wanted me to partner with him so he could buy some rentals. I had no interest in that because that isn't my area of expertise and the amount of reward for the amount of work didn't make sense for me. BUT! I know a guy here who, that is literally his business model. I don't know how he's doing these days, but his thing is that he'll find a house, fix it up, and then sell it to an investor. Then for a cut, he'll find a renter to put in it, manage the property, and collect the rent. Total latchkey solution. Generally it isn't a good idea to buy rentals in another state--unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Smart people won't even buy rentals in a part of town they don't spend much time in. But by having this guy do all the heavy lifting, someone in, say, California, can own a house in Louisville and all he has to do is deposit the rent checks.
I actually had lunch with this guy when I was starting out because it seemed like maybe his thing would work for me. But when I understood how it worked, I realized it wasn't my thing. It's a sweet deal for him--and for an investor that's willing to take less money for no headaches--but he gets all the "fat" from the deal. He gets the markup from renovating a run-down place and he gets a cut for managing the property. He takes all the value-adds.
But it's exactly what my friend wanted. He's got the money/credit, but not the time, connections, or skill to own rental properties--especially in another state. So I tried to hook him up with this guy but my friend demurred. "I don't trust him. I trust you." Well, sorry bro. Because what you want isn't something I want to provide. And if you trust me, you should trust me when I try to hook you up with someone who is a perfect fit for what you want. But I'm not going down that rabbit hole. "You can lead a horse to water..."