We downsized our primary home and now have $500K spare.

[Alice B.]

We downsized from a mortgage-free $600K home in a pricey market to a $100K home in Las Vegas, and have the excess available for investing. These two homes are the only ones we have ever owned. I'm not comfortable with plunging that money into the stock market so I'm looking for a RE alternative.  I don't think it's possible to even hit the 1% rule in the Las Vegas market currently. What should we be thinking about? Out of state investing seems like a huge leap given our lack of experience.  I'm quite keen on dipping my toe in the water with a sub 100K place that has good cash flow. If we had a good experience we could quickly scale up, and learn as we went. I'd like to know if there are options I'm not thinking about but should be. For example, some type of private lending with the cash reserves we have.

[Jay Hinrichs]

@Alice B. 

  I wrote an e book on the do's and don'ts of out of state or country investing .. happy to forward it to you if you like.. will give you some good tips  based on my 20 years of lending in the space and owning over 350 Mid west cash flow homes.

Just keep in mind when your investing out of state returns are directly proportional to RISK.

AS Elizabeth states she only invests in A type properties for a much smaller return or what return that is quoted on paper.. But has mitigated the management issues with the quality of the assets.. And Capital preservation and liquidity should come into mind as well.