Help me spend my money!

[Nicole Brush]

I'm a 33 year old teacher, living in Massachusetts, married with two kids and a huge interest in investing in real estate.  However, after reading this site for hours upon hours and listening to days worth of podcasts, I feel like I'm even more confused with what I should do and where I should start.  Ideally I would like to build something that would allow me to dedicate more flexible time to my family.

My husband is on board with me doing something creative real-estate wise, but I'm not sure what direction to head.  We have about $70,000 cash we can use to get started but we are also looking to buy/rent in a good area for the kids to go to school.  Since we are first-time homebuyers I know we could buy and put very little down on a house but don't know what direction to go.  Would you put down as much as we can on a multi-family that we would also live in?  Put down 3.5% on a single-family (or multi-family) and invest the rest in a second property?  Buy and flip a house?  I'm so confused! (and still not entirely sure how to go about with the wholesale thing)

Because I am a teacher, I would have the summer to dedicate to research, rehab, etc., but until then, and perhaps even after, we would both stay employed to guarantee an income.  As a side note, we currently live in a house that we put down the down payment on and have been maintaining for the past 5 years, but it is not in our name, which is why we would still be considered first-time homebuyers.  We do have experience renovating and maintaining a house though, and this beast was build in 1900 so it wasn't exactly easy swimming.  

Thank you so much for any advice you can provide.  

[John B.]

If it was me..  I would put 3.5% down on a multifamily.. live in one unit..  rent out the others.. 3 or 4 family would be even better than a 2 family..   

Then keep as much of your remainder $70K as you can if anything is left!, and start saving for another multi-family using the rents from the first multi-family.  Get the first multi-family stable, all rented out, maintenance issues resolved.. before moving onto another property to keep your sanity.     In a year or two, you can even consider re-financing your first multi-family, and pulling out some equity, to buy another multi-family.

That's essentially what I did starting out with my wife back 20 years ago, and was probably the best financial decision we ever made.

Good luck!!