Reddit mentions of Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing (Financial Management Association Survey and Synthesis)

• Expected Returns by antti Ilmanen
  
• Asset Management by Andrew Ang
  
• maybe Asset Pricing by Cochrane
  
  The last one doesn't really give you an overview of real-world institutional details as much, whereas Ang and Ilmanen both have really extensive introductions to this. Both Ang and Ilmanen spend some time on the economics of why this works -- utility-function-based explanations of why we should expect things to have positive expected returns anyway -- but they add a lot on how this looks IRL (how the relevant instruments and markets for them actually work, what classes of investors tend to buy them and why, what kinds of risk factors they're exposed to, etc)
  
  Edit: I recommend against Ben Graham's book actually if you want a broad overview. I don't think he even touches factor investing, for example. Focuses on how to pick stocks by valuing the company on a fundamental basis which...shouldn't add value. Has little tie in to academic finance, unlike Ilmanen and Ang which both give you a good idea of what the seminal papers in various areas are and what's going on in the literature lately.

> Sometimes I'm reminded why I don't spend a lot of time on this subreddit.

Then I must be doing something right.

> 1.It's a historical store of value

So are virgin sacrifices.

> 2.A hedge against the appreciation of the U.S Dollar.

Lots of other things are, that also produce cashflows.

> and near 100% percent of your assets are in Dollars)

Couldn't be more wrong if you tried.

> 3.Gold has historically been an excellent hedge against inflation,

No, it hasn't. Gold has a 1% correlation with inflation, pg. 366. Better luck next time Mr. Hernandez.

> 4.Gold tends to retain its value in times of geopolitical uncertainty. Which I think is going to continue to escalate, especially with current commodity prices.

This is just a re-wording of #1.

> 5.Central Banks can't print Gold. Gold in a sense is a hedge against credidibility in central banks and governments around the world. Which I think will decline over the next 10-20 years.

You people have a mental illness.

> And you say Gold has NO place in a portfolio?

Yes.

I agree with /u/dingohopper1 in distinguishing between idiosyncratic and systematic risk. So if you have a ton of money in a single property or location, you have a large exposure to idiosyncratic risk. Efficient markets theory is that you should only receive compensation for exposure to systematic risks - not systematic. The most common / largest systematic risk is exposure to the "g" or growth factor of economic conditions.
Given a large part of the appeal to real estate investing is the possibility of inefficiency, many fractured local markets are less than perfectly inefficiency and you can find a deal.
Reading the book Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing by Andrew Ang, who was a professor at Columbia and now head of factor investing at Blackrock, convinced me to think in terms of exposure to factors, or systematic risks, rather than asset classes such as stocks, bonds, etc. Retail real estate and most US equities both have a large systematic risk exposure to economic growth. Residential real estate, such as apartments has lower exposure to this systematic risk. Thus, in the long run apartments should have lower returns than retail real estate; just as treasury bonds have lower long term lower returns than common stock, with investment grade bonds in between.
In summary: I think it is best to avoid stupid/unsafe idiosyncratic risk such as pledging one property for another ad infinitum by which all your idiosyncratic risks become correlated and you can lose everything. I try to think broadly in terms of the systematic risks I am exposed to. The most common in real estate are: growth, inflation, and interest rates. Your choices, e.g. floating vs fixed, effect your exposure to these systematic risk factors.
EDIT: I agree with Bogle on 4% REAL / 6.5% nominal / 2.5% inflation over next 10 years for US equities. I believe emerging market equities will provide much higher returns. This is due to to the divergence in valuation.

1. Learn Corporate Finance
   
2. Learn to invest