You see people do this a lot with housing. They make $100k after 5 years and pat themselves on the back.
They ignore that if they had put their down payment in the market, they would have made $110k.
They ignore that if they had put their down payment in the market, they would have made $110k.
To your point, their $100k gain at 5x leverage kind sucks compared to a $110k gain at zero leverage.
For your incomplete example, if the summed cost of rentals was $10k higher than cost of owning the home, then they made a profit.