By Brijesh 
Building wealth often starts with the familiar choices: stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Of course, there’s also cash. You can stash a portion of your hard-earned paycheck in a high-yield savings account or CD. There’s nothing wrong with more liquid investments like these, but they may not outpace long-term inflation.
Even stocks and bonds may struggle to keep pace. With increasingly volatile market swings, it’s hard to tell if you’re coming out ahead. Because of this uncertainty, people are turning to alternative investments, including real estate. While single-family homes and apartment buildings fall under the conventional asset umbrella, thinking outside the box can bring greater advantages to your portfolio.
With alternative investments, numerous benefits, including improved diversification and higher returns, await. Whether you’ve invested in real estate before or are considering it now, don’t be afraid to explore all your options. You just might find a few hidden gems with steady returns if you dig beneath the surface.
Fewer Ties to the Stock Market
Stock market trends tend to be speculative. An announcement about tariffs and quarterly earnings reports will immediately send the numbers up or down. If there’s more volatility than usual, market indexes can fluctuate daily. Investments in the market and funds tied to indexes like the S&P 500 are less stable.
During periods of volatility, your vulnerability to potential losses increases. Even if you don’t see a dip in the value of your investments, you might just break even. Between what gains you realize and the losses that occur shortly after, you’re not meeting your desired return. There’s less potential to get more than what you put in. Plus, it’s a guessing game as to whether you should cut your losses now or wait until conditions stabilize.
Unconventional real estate, such as mobile home parks, is less likely to follow whatever the stock market’s doing. In contrast, these investments move to the beat of their own drum. There’s an opportunity for increased stability while market indexes are going crazy. This stability lowers your exposure to risk while boosting the potential for returns.
Speaking of advantages of niche markets like mobile home parks, Lifestyle Investing expert Justin Donald notes, “In contrast to the highly efficient stock market, the mobile home park industry is highly fragmented. By identifying underperforming parks, savvy investors can unlock their potential.” What Donald means is that it’s easier to achieve a higher long-term return with unconventional properties because they’re not all following the same trajectory.
Greater Resiliency
Economic cycles impact supply and demand. In turn, these market forces influence prices and consumer behaviors. During market downturns, single-family homes are harder to sell. These properties sit longer, despite multiple showings and open houses. Vacancies for rentals go up, as do signs of trouble, such as an uptick in the number of evictions.
While an outright crash isn’t predicted for the housing market anytime soon, there are signs of a slowdown. Prices remain high, but they aren’t rising as quickly as they were during the pandemic. Around 15% of contracts on homes fell through in June 2025, representing an all-time high since 2017. Also, mortgage rates aren’t decreasing much, continuing to restrict affordability and sales.
Conventional real estate isn’t as resilient to macroeconomic forces. However, non-traditional properties can be. Think student and senior housing, as well as storage facilities. Mobile home parks also fall into this category, where demand remains high despite the general market.
It’s because the demand for these types of properties isn’t usually driven by economic cycles. There are other principal forces at play, such as demographics. With student and senior housing, it’s those within a specific age range seeking homes catering to age-related needs. Students are looking for alternatives to the dorms that are close to campus. These rentals can’t break the bank, but need to be functional, comfortable, and safe.
Seniors want a place that’s cost-conscious and offers amenities like community activities and no maintenance. Mobile home parks appeal to those seeking smaller, affordable homes with less upkeep. Since unconventional real estate goes against the grain, macroeconomic forces aren’t as likely to impact returns and cash flow.
Steady Passive Income
Some stocks pay dividends, some don’t. You may not even remember the last time you got a significant payout. Perhaps you’ve chosen to reinvest any payouts back into your portfolio. Nonetheless, you’re not seeing the needle move enough to afford your next vacation, let alone fund your lifestyle.
Replacing income from an office job isn’t something many achieve within weeks. But it is possible if you choose enough investments with consistent cash flow. The less hands-on the investments are, the more likely those cash flows will become passive. Your income streams shift to being turnkey. You continue to make money regardless of whether you’re actively engaged in the property itself.
Now, you’re probably not going to get to this stage with a traditional rental. You’ll be managing tenants and the challenges that come with it. If you’re not doing this yourself, you’ll be overseeing a property management company to ensure they’re on top of everything.
Non-traditional real estate, on the other hand, usually involves less maintenance. Take real estate investment trusts (REITs), for example. You invest a percentage in multiple properties, but you stay in the background. There’s no dealing with maintenance, tenants, and resale contracts. You put in the funds and get dividends plus an overall return when the property’s sold. Other unconventional real estate, including storage and data center facilities, can work the same way.
Protect Against Inflation
In June 2025, inflation rose slightly to 2.7%. Yet, in June 2022, inflation was at 9.1%. If your portfolio wasn’t keeping up during 2021 to 2023, you’re not alone. It’s why retirement planners sometimes recommend overestimating what you need to save during your working years. There’s no telling where inflation will be once it’s time to hang up your hat.
Inflation erodes the returns your investments make before you have to use them for income. Say you earn an average return of 10%. If inflation rises to 9%, you’ve really only gained 1%. If earning a 1% return is acceptable, then you’re in the clear. But for most investors, a 1% return is anemic at best. It’s not enough to justify losing access to your money for the investment’s commitment period.
With these same dynamics, any return less than 9% means your investment’s actually lost purchasing power. Unconventional real estate helps mitigate these risks by protecting against the adverse effects of inflation.
Remember the tendency for non-traditional properties to stray from market trends and macroeconomic forces? This means these assets can appreciate faster than their conventional cousins. The result is similar to a portfolio with a mix of sure-thing bonds and riskier stocks. The lower risk associated with the bonds balances out the stocks’ increased chances of loss. Meanwhile, the higher returns from the stocks make the lower bond gains worth it.
Depending on your goals, investing in a mix of unconventional properties can help your portfolio hedge against inflation. You don’t have to place 100% of your money in non-traditional real estate. But adding some alongside run-of-the-mill properties can help you avoid financial losses.
Lower Barriers to Entry
Buying a multifamily property takes resources. You’ve got to raise the capital, either through your own funds or by securing a loan. As a property owner, you also have to consider operating costs. Will you hire an in-house property management and leasing team? Or will you outsource it?
In addition, there are marketing expenses, potential depreciation costs, and future upgrades. How long will you own the property, and do you have an exit strategy? You can make predictions based on data, but it’s challenging to determine whether market conditions will be favorable when deciding to sell.
These barriers to entry make it more challenging to acquire traditional real estate investments. You may also have to consider what type of investor will serve your needs best—for example, flipping older properties versus renting newer high-rise condos.
Unconventional real estate, such as crowdfunding and REIT platforms, has lower entry barriers. It’s possible to start investing with a few hundred dollars instead of hundreds of thousands. As a silent investor, you don’t have to worry about any operating expenses. Everything is managed for you, and you also don’t have to tie up your money for as long. There’s more liquidity, along with a clear-cut exit.
The Unconventional Real Estate Advantage
Investing in conventional real estate isn’t the same as buying stock. There are more unknowns, including when you might get your money back and how long you’ll need to stay invested. Typically, real estate is less liquid, requiring you to be committed for the long term. This dynamic isn’t necessarily a negative, but it can make it more challenging to enter the game.
Unconventional real estate doesn’t always present the same obstacles. The return and cash flow potential these properties have can be as unique as the assets themselves. When the overall market’s down, non-traditional real estate returns can be trending up. Likewise, the demand for unconventional properties can remain consistent, leading to reliable income streams.
While everyone’s fretting about what’s happening with the markets, non-traditional real estate investments can ease your worries. With these properties, you’ll reduce your risk and increase your earning potential. Your portfolio will be more balanced, and you won’t be tempted to exit based on short-term volatility.