No offense but, of course you believe real estate is the way to go. Just like you thought tech stocks were the wave of the future in the 90's, junk bonds in the 80's, gold in the 70's, airliners in the 50's, railroads, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. Sure, you are making more on your investment when you are putting down a fraction of your money in real estate, but what happens when that real estate goes down? Your original investment and then some goes way down. Real estate will fall, just like every other fad investment has.