Property is a decent investment, commercial and industrial you can expect to see nice returns and all expenses are pushed to the tenant. When renting homes, its usually about getting your tenants to pay off the mortgage and then you have excellent monthly recurring revenue streams, of course you can then sell your 100k+ assets whenever you want.
I wouldn't recommend property as a decent investment for most compared to a total stock market ETF.
You have the risk of the location becoming undesirable (lots of places in the US with stagnant or declining property values), you have the risk of bad tenants, you have the risk of being liable for the tenants in case something happens (even though you have insurance, they can always sue you), you have the risk of maintenance issues in the house requiring costly repairs. Etc.
