It's cheaper to borrow against a stock portfolio than real estate (since it's much easier for a broker to liquidate your stocks than for your bank to foreclose

It's cheaper to borrow against a stock portfolio than real estate (since it's much easier for a broker to liquidate your stocks than for your bank to foreclose on your home): https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1595 https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1595 Although they only give you 4x leverage vs. the 5x-20x common in residential real estate. Anyways, I think you're grossly overestimating how good of an investment real estate is. Unless you have some kind of edge (like you're a developer and your friend is on the zoning board or whatever) you're not going to magically get rich doing it. It's just another asset class.