What would you do with $10,000 in SW Florida?

[Bryan Wirthlin]

Good Afternoon BP,

My name is Bryan, I'm 29 years old and I'm ready to begin my investors journey here in beautiful North Port Florida. Trouble is, there's more information than I really know what to do with. I've gone through BP's Beginner Guide, I've scoured blogs, read books till my eyes bled, and I've watched more Youtube videos than I even dare to think about, but for all my effort at getting educated, I end up with even more questions than I had before I started and very little "how to" knowledge.

There are a couple of things I do know, or think I know.

$10K is NOT a lot of money, especially not here, but I'm at a point where I've got to do something. There has to be SOMETHING that I can do with $10K.

I don't think flipping is for me. Mostly because I'm not sure how to accurately estimate repairs. I think I would get myself in a lot of trouble with that without a watchful eye to guide that process.

REIT's are of interest to me because of their low minimum requirements (some of them) and it's a rather passive way to invest and passive appeals to me right now with a full time job (that I would just love to replace.)

Wholesaling is a time honored practice that I think I could do, if I could get someone to explain the mechanics to me. I understand the concept, but how to go about getting it financed is still a mystery to me.

Tax Liens sound interesting. In fact the house next to me (i currently rent,) just sold. My neighbors thought it would NEVER sell as it was run down and had about $20,00 in liens against it, but someone bought it and is presumably going to fix it up and rent it out. I don't full understand how to invest with Tax Liens, but I'd really like to learn more from someone who knows.

I have given thought to working as a real estate agent or in some other RE capacity to acquire knowledge and I do have the job flexibility to do this (my job starts at 3 am and I'm typically done by 0930-1030.) My job also pays fairly decently relative to my expenses, so the bank account IS growing, just not as fast as I want. The longer this takes, the more money I'll have when I find a deal.

I've thought about crowdfunding for the aforementioned low investment and the ability to invest in multiple investments with $10K. Of course, as with all things, you get what you put in and one or two thousand spread across multiple investments may not have a very good yield per investment.

What I WAS going to do, befer I even discovered Bigger Pockets, was save $10K and put that down on an "owner occupied" $100,000 single family home, pay down the mortgage till it's at 70% of LTV, then do a cash out refinance to get the equity and reacquire capital for investing. Then take THAT money and use it to buy another one or two rentals, pay down their mortgage, get the equity out of them, buy more rentals... lather, rinse, repeat.

But, now I'm thinking there may be better options and I'd appreciate having the forums to guide me through this process.

I know I don't have a lot of capital, but I do have a wealth of free time, a good credit score, a supportive girlfriend that makes enough to hold down the fort and a determined eagerness to get this going and I'd like to leverage these advantages in the North Port/ Bradenton/ Sarasota area.

So people of BP, what would you do with $10,000?

Thanks for reading BP and have a great day.