A majority of the white collar people I work with brag about how many homes they own and rent because it's the best investment they ever made without having to put much work into it. One of them rents out his deceased mother's house left to him in a will for $9000 a month to a family of like 12 with 4 generations in it and it's only like a 4-5 bedroom house.

He isn't doing it to provide, he's doing it because it's good money. Stocks don't get you that instant cash back like renting does.

God I hope it's a bubble and I hope they all end up destitute trying to sell the houses. I don't even fucking care if I get it worse, I can't compete, and they all have like 3+ houses a piece.

If you buy 3 homes (and the land beneath it) for roughly 300k USD, which is a very very low estimate, on a 15 year loan and pay more than 4 or 5% interest then you need to make 2,219.06 to 2,372.38 a month for the minimum payment before figuring costs of insurance and costs of maintenance like painting, doors, replacing heat tape on water lines, sometimes replacing entire walls, windows, fixtures, or insulation, pest control, roofing every couple of years. You also have to pay estimated taxes every quarter. If one of your homes sits empty or your renters are late then you are at a deficit. If you evict then you'll end up covering power and water as well. It's not all that profitable on the small scale, absolutely feels like charity if you're charging less than $1400.

But the thing is, if nobody buys those homes, then they aren't on the market for rent. So then where do people live? Luckily, low income housing has become more available across the USA, but it's definitely not the greatest community to raise children.