New 150% bump in salary, so what should be my plan for building wealth?

[Daniel O.]

I am 36 years old, married with a 1 year old girl.  I live in a Houston, Texas.  My credit is pretty good - in the high 700's.  I had a pretty decent salary before, but not enough with all of my expenses and dependents to really aggressively invest in property with the goal of building wealth.   After a couple strokes of good luck, I suddenly have 20-25k a month to save and potentially invest with for at least the next 2-3 years after living expenses are all taken care of.  I know I probably won't make this salary forever, so I would like to aggressively invest during this time period in my career.

I currently have about 110k equity in my ~350k primary home, and 50% ownership in another townhome.   My partner wants to sell the property next month, and I should net at least 50k.  I also own a 5% stake in a commercial lot which is currently for sale.   Based on current selling price, I would net about $45k.   My cash savings are meager at this point, about 50k.   

I plan to purchase a 100-150k townhome in an up and coming area nearby for my parents, who currently rely on social security and my help to pay for rent and living expenses.  I would like to do this in the next couple of months.  The plan is to have them pay the mortgage, and officially showing them as renters of my investment property.   Any ideas on how to best arrange this would be greatly appreciated.  I would like to show a good cash on cash return, while still giving them cash on the side at the same time.  I am not sure at this point how to accomplish this on paper.

I am aware I could purchase properties and renovate before renting pretty quickly, maybe as much as 3 - 4 homes this year if I can find good deals.   Before planning this thing on my own, I'd like some input from our more seasoned users on the board.   Retrospect is always 20/20 and you guys are smarter for it.  I would really appreciate any sort advice or input you can provide to me before I embark on my journey.

Some questions I can think of off the top of my head:

Should I aim to go for more expensive properties because of my unique situation, or go for whatever makes sense by the numbers, whether the home be 50k or 250k?

Any input on the situation with buying my parents a place to live would be appreciated.

Is there a better way I can leverage my salary and savings to purchase properties?

[Nathan Emmert]

You didn't tell us what you were investing for... Cash flow... Tax savings (at your implied income of $300+K a year this won't matter)... appreciation... something else?

This is debated about as much as the 50% rule around here... so pick a team (vampire or werewolf!) and go from there.

I'm a cash flow investor... I buy off the rule of "buy the numbers today".  I don't buy assuming rents next year will be 25% higher... I don't buy expecting the house to appreciate 5% a year with a 10 year exit strategy... I buy off today's interest rates and today's market rent rates for the shape the units are in (or will be in if I've figured in rehab costs).

From there the real question becomes are you better off buying ten $100,000 properties that each rent for $1,500 a month... or a single $1,000,000 property that rents for $15,000 a month.  You can either diversify risk (10 properties)... or lessen headaches (1 property versus ten... 1 loan process versus 10).  I can understand why some would want the discrete entities (could cash out just 1 property and keep $850k in property instead of having to cash out the entire $1,000,000)... but I think I'd go big personally.