Seriously, what do you expect? Money doesn't work. If you invest and want to turn an above-average profit, you need to put up something, be it knowledge, skills, or effort. As you said, owning a house requires a certain skillset, but that's exactly where your money would come from.
So if you're already in the construction business, or a real-estate lawyer, or simply have lots of experience and spare time, it's a good choice. If you're a software engineer who can't tell drywall from masonry and simply wants to do a few mouse clicks to gain a passive income, it's definitely not for you.
Anybody who has rented know most of the work is way overblown. The average landlord I've had can barely be bothered to lift his middle finger at you if something goes wrong. If the toilet is clogged, or the heat stops, or whatever it's generally left for the renter to figure out and take the loss.
What are you going to do, sue with whatever meager stash the average renter has left after paying the rent?
Much of the work is "gigged" out anyway. When something breaks at my current rental, I get told the job has been tendered, and then I get let known when someone has accepted the job. I'm not sure what happens if no-one accepts it.
It's also not the landlord doing that, it's the real-estate company.
And that's exactly the kind of investment that yields average returns. If you're fine with that you can also directly invest into a company doing this. If you want more, you have to cut some middlemen.
So if you're already in the construction business, or a real-estate lawyer, or simply have lots of experience and spare time, it's a good choice. If you're a software engineer who can't tell drywall from masonry and simply wants to do a few mouse clicks to gain a passive income, it's definitely not for you.