If you wonder what is better between investing in the stock market or real estate, there is no answer to that as both have pluses and minuses and then it can come down to knowledge, risk and volatility tolerance, personal psychology and perception, which are different from each of us.

.$12,000 investments are a Siren Song for amateur investors.

What may be skewing your perception is your think of Self-Employed persons, say a plumber, electrician etc., who strike out on own as a "business".

Again just my opinion not backing it with anything really except my perception and being able to calculate risk.

I was a cop for a while and I wanted to change peoples perception of them so I actually became one.

@James Maradits I think you are very intuitive in your perception...by that, I mean I used to be hard on Cleveland...that said, we're all representing our respective markets the best we can (or should be)...but we are all in the state of Ohio.

Then you should have nothing to worry about.For many years now we have been telling investors to use their own expense deductions when calculating a return on investment.Our marketing team only quotes the “hard costs” as in - taxes, insurance and property management fees.We suggest discounting another 15% from the bottom line for maintenance and vacancy but I’d much prefer for everyone to OVERESTIMATE the expenses and UNDERESTIMATE the income using their own calculations.If the numbers work out then, the investment might be worth pursuing further.Classifying areas can sometimes get convoluted.Since I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth and consider myself a working class guy, my perception of B class might be someone’s of “Z class” lolMy advice to all is to visit town and see the areas for themselves.I’m confident they will be impressed.Especially if they have already toured other markets with similar price points to ours.Real estate is a rollercoaster of a ride and as much as we want to make it hands off/passive.

If people don't like the perception, change the perception. 

I know there are a lot of negative perceptions about section 8 tenants, they are not all true.

Although there is usually a perception that paying more gives you more, it can also be a false reality.