Trying to figure out my next investment strategy? - Please Help!

[Mike Lynch]

Hi,

I have been visiting this site now for months and have purchased "The Book On House Flipping" and "Estimating Rehab Costs" by J Scott along with "The Book On Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Turner, plus several other books. I have read them and they are great. Wow! - There are just so many ideas on how a person an do things in this business.

My wife and I purchased a foreclosure with cash for $118,000 that needed a ton of work. We will have invested around $90,000 in it on rehab when finished, so that brings it to $208,000. ( New sewer, new windows, new HVAC, retaining wall, hardwood floors, carpet, driveway, etc. ) According to an appraiser, a contractor / home builder friend of mine, and a realtor, the home will be worth $360,000, give or take, when we get it finished in a few months. All of the homes in the neighborhood are $300,000 to $500,000 and ours is the third largest one in the neighborhood at 3008 sq., on a saltwater river, waterfront community. Currently, we owe $75,000 on the 1988 small ranch 3/2 home that we live in now.

After plugging in the numbers like on page 116 of "Rental Property Investing", by Brandon Turner, our Capex will be $437.00 per month to keep the home. Within the next 15 years, this home has $50,000 of vinyl siding to be replaced, $15,000 worth of HVAC units, $12,000 of Balcony Decks, $18,000 hurricane roof, $7000 appliances, and more!

My wife fell in love with the view and all of the sea birds and has been dying to live in it. Heck! --- We can't afford or want to save up $437.00 Capex per month. That's like a total house payment from now on. We just don't have that kind of income now! Also, short term rentals are now out of the question, after I made a few calls and asked some neighbors about it. All of our neighbors are just way too quiet and I have been warned that they will not tolerate it at all. It is like Retirementville USA. Not gonna work in this neighborhood, I can tell you!

My goal: -- Get out of my current situation of owning and operating a small plumbing company. Why? -- Getting too old to Army Crawl under houses all day long for a living with never ending aching bones and muscles. I am sick of it. I want or need to go in to Real Estate Investing full time.

What to do, what to do?

What am I going to do with the river house? ( Sell it, rent to own it, lease option it )

Do I first need to sell it and pay off the home that I am currently living in for $75,000 and get that out of the way or are there much better options? Would there be any good reason to try and keep the big river home? -- I can't think of any right now. It looks like it will eat us alive!

Please give me some ideas of some strategies that you would do if you were in this situation today of the safest way / smartest way to be on the road to full time investing so maybe I can quit my hard manual labor job that I have been doing for over 25 years. I am all ears and totally open minded to your suggestions! :)

Thanks so much!

Mike