Posted by John Corey on March 14, 2006 at 24:37:44:
Sandy,
To start put the money in the bank and find some books so you learn about the different options. I can not tell how much experience you have with actual RE investing.
MH - go to the MH forum. You will need very little money to do MH deals. They are nothing like stick built in most ways. Great investment for those who want to go in that direction.
Stick built - 100K can go a long way in some markets. Are you looking to buy and hold, rehab, flip, etc? There are many routes and you should focus a bit while learning. I am not saying you should stick to only one model. Just that you can learn one model at a time rather than spread yourself around.
Any idea where in TX you are moving to? If so, what does the local market look like? Average price, time on the market, style of housing, rentals vs. owner occupied, etc?
The only advantage of short term over long term is you could do more deals and maybe learn more about deals if you focus on short term. You will not learn much about rentals doing short term deals, just how to find deals and how to dispose of them.
You also will need to learn about tax issues, legal liability, structures such as LLC, C Corps, etc. You can learn as you go. There are some useful books to get you started.
Most importantly is to get a handle on what you are trying to accomplish so there is some sense of a plan.
John Corey