Laravel Trying to get property of non-object, relationship within same table

I've got a User model as below:

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Auth\Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Auth\Passwords\CanResetPassword;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\Authorizable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable as AuthenticatableContract;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Access\Authorizable as AuthorizableContract;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\CanResetPassword as CanResetPasswordContract;

class User extends Model implements AuthenticatableContract,
                                    AuthorizableContract,
                                    CanResetPasswordContract
{
    use Authenticatable, Authorizable, CanResetPassword;

    /**
     * The database table used by the model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $table = 'users';
    public function recruits()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('App\User','recruiters_id');
    }
    public function recruiter()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('App\User','recruiters_id');
    }
}

There is a 'recruiters_id' field in the 'users' table, which was set up with:

public function up()
    {
        Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->foreign('recruiters_id')->references('id')->on('users');
        });
    }

So the idea is that users can recruit other users. But when I try something like I get the "Trying to get property of non-object" error

If I do instead I get the output below, which does look like an object (to my inexperienced eyes at least, although it does seem like the "object" is repeated a few times even though I only use print_r once):

App\User Object ( [table:protected] => users [fillable:protected] => Array ( [0] => review_count [1] => review_sum [2] => review_avg [3] => display_name [4] => business_name [5] => setting1 [6] => referrer_id [7] => referrer_margin [8] => gender [9] => age [10] => title [11] => points [12] => credits [13] => bankacct_nr [14] => bankacct_name [15] => bsb [16] => save_payment [17] => newsletter [18] => first_name [19] => last_name [20] => phone [21] => email [22] => password [23] => subject [24] => credentials [25] => margin [26] => user_type [27] => url [28] => questions [29] => form_subject [30] => postcode [31] => recruiters_id [32] => internal_notes ) [hidden:protected] => Array ( [0] => password [1] => remember_token ) [connection:protected] => [primaryKey:protected] => id [perPage:protected] => 15 [incrementing] => 1 [timestamps] => 1 [attributes:protected] => Array ( [id] => 240 [first_name] => Jane [last_name] => Recruit [title] => [phone] => [email] => i@recruit.com [user_type] => recruiter [margin] => 0.00 [credentials] => [password] => $2y$10$eTSX9vRGFr5eupAL/kyexeARVDjT.M/7xE2Yp.6PMTuH/dOsFd6QS [remember_token] => [created_at] => 2016-07-06 15:19:23 [updated_at] => 2016-07-06 15:19:23 [status] => [url] => [newsletter] => 0 [postcode] => [form_subjects] => [questions] => [save_payment] => 0 [bsb] => [bankacct_nr] => [bankacct_name] => [points] => 0 [credits] => 0 [gender] => [age] => 0 [referrer_id] => [referrer_margin] => 0.00 [setting1] => [business_name] => [display_name] => i recruit [following] => [followers] => [belts_id] => [recruiters_id] => [internal_notes] => [review_count] => 0 [review_sum] => 0 [review_avg] => 0.00 ) [original:protected] => Array ( [id] => 240 [first_name] => Jane [last_name] => Recruit [title] => [phone] => [email] => i@recruit.com [user_type] => recruiter [margin] => 0.00 [credentials] => [password] => $2y$10$eTSX9vRGFr5eupAL/kyexeARVDjT.M/7xE2Yp.6PMTuH/dOsFd6QS [remember_token] => [created_at] => 2016-07-06 15:19:23 [updated_at] => 2016-07-06 15:19:23 [status] => [url] => [newsletter] => 0 [postcode] => [form_subjects] => [questions] => [save_payment] => 0 [bsb] => [bankacct_nr] => [bankacct_name] => [points] => 0 [credits] => 0 [gender] => [age] => 0 [referrer_id] => [referrer_margin] => 0.00 [setting1] => [business_name] => [display_name] => i recruit [following] => [followers] => [belts_id] => [recruiters_id] => [internal_notes] => [review_count] => 0 [review_sum] => 0 [review_avg] => 0.00 ) [relations:protected] => Array ( ) [visible:protected] => Array ( ) [appends:protected] => Array ( ) [guarded:protected] => Array ( [0] => * ) [dates:protected] => Array ( ) [dateFormat:protected] => [casts:protected] => Array ( ) [touches:protected] => Array ( ) [observables:protected] => Array ( ) [with:protected] => Array ( ) [morphClass:protected] => [exists] => 1 [wasRecentlyCreated] => ) 1 

This is my first time setting up Eloquent relationships within the same table, so maybe I made some mistakes there. Using Laravel 5.1

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance

via Chebli Mohamed