Fix-and-flip investments might make for compelling programming on HGTV, but investors prefer buy-and-hold rental properties. A recent Investor Sentiment Survey from RCN Capital demonstrated that rentals were the most popular of the three types of residential real estate investments.

It's no real secret that more and more Americans have been choosing to rent over buying a home for some time now. Most people, however, have been under the assumption that this was merely a consequence brought on in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. The foreclosure crisis at the time scared many would-be homeowners away and the subsequent market boom in areas with job opportunities quickly grew out-of-reach for millennials.