Agree with you. There is nothing passive about becoming real estate landlord.
Property management firms can manage only so much and cost a lot. They will come to you for most big expenses and decisions. Unless you have lot of rentals, property management firms tend to be expensive and you barely break-even on one or two properties.
Another issue with rental real-estate is squatting and defacing of the property if your property stays vacant for a month or two and not in good shape.
From passive income aspect, it is better to invest in REITs to get exposure to real-estate or join property management/ real-estate partnerships as LP/GP.
