I got out of the residential rental game a few years ago. The landlord/tenant laws definitely favor the tenants and I don't see that changing. There are people living in rentals right now who haven't made a payment since June and the covid relief laws have made it tough to evict them, but it's not impossible if you can prove they're able to actually make the payments. It seems like the government is going to continue favoring the poor little tenants moving forward so I got out for that reason.

Commercial rentals are somewhat less risky but with so many businesses now transitioning to a work-from-home work arrangement I'm seeing lots of office spaces sitting vacant that wouldn't have been 2 years ago.

I think the vacation rental is a pretty good option, even if it's not at the beach. I have friends who are killing it in Tuscaloosa by renting houses out to people coming into town to visit campus. You get a credit card on file in case there's any damage. The tenant basically pays for the cleaning costs but they also can tear stuff up without you realizing it. Still not as bad as a tenant who's in a house for a year

Storage rentals are also a solid way to go but they are popping up all over the place and a lot of the people running them don't have much business sense and they've run the costs way down.

As others have said, inflation is crazy right now. Whatever you buy, buy it in a part of town where you think the values will continue to go up. My mom's $149,900 house 4 years ago is worth $210-220k today because of where she bought it. You could buy a rental and hold onto to it for at least 2 years (to avoid the capital gains tax) and then sell it for a decent profit without the risk of doing a quick flip renovation...