What’s sometimes packaged as a passive real estate investment turns into an ACTIVE real estate investment quickly when

1. 1. A note purchased has a borrower default and the loan servicer has exhausted all attempts to cure

2. 2. A tenant vacates and the property management company isn’t able to replace the tenant

3. 3. The property manager proves incompetent, dishonest, or disinterested, or all three

4. 4. The subject property all of a sudden requires major capital expenditures or repairs

5. 5. The 3N lease tenant files BK

To have a shot a real "passive" real estate investment you have to be investing "in someone else's deal". The "bigger" that someone else, the more chance that it will remain truly passive. So if your investment is passively as the only other investor in a partnership with a small time investor you met at the real estate club, there's a more than 50% chance that at some post you'll need to "step in". If it's a syndication with a larger syndicator, there's a lot smaller chance of it becoming active. And if you're passive investment is in a major publicly traded REIT, you're assured of it remaining a passive investment.