[aestra]

Landlording can be very profitable in some areas or a huge money pit in some areas. My parents did it for years and barely broke even, or lost a ton of money if you include labor costs.

Plus you get people waking you up in the middle of the night when they lock themselves out.

[pilom]

I agree entirely with the fact that real estate it is very hit or miss. But worst case scenario (assuming you have insurance) is you have to sell the house at a depressed price and take a loss on your time. With a restaurant (where 50%+ are out of business in 3 years) you rent the space, lose all the money you spent on rent, and on food and on employees etc. Very easy to lose everything with a restaurant, but you need to be fairly unlucky to loose more than you put into a house (i.e. you bought in 2007)

That being said, saving lots of money and living off of dividends is the way to go.

[aestra]

Assuming you can find a buyer for the house. My parents could absolutely not sell theirs, there was no buyer, because anyone could see there was no money to be made. You need a buyer to sell.