What would you do if this were your situation

[Jerie Bowie]

What would you do if this were your situation? Feel free to ask questions for more details but I'll try to briefly lay it out.

My 3 year goal it to have $5000/ mo positive flow so my husband no longer has to work his 'day job'. He owns a side business but it's up and coming. I work part time, am in part time school and home-school 3 of our 4 kids. My brother is a real estate inspector and recently got a list of foreclosed properties from a few local banks to get ready for market. He is under contract with them to continue to do this. He recently came upon a 'great deal' (I have not seen the properties nor run the numbers yet) on a single family home for about $45k. He says he knows they will take less and after his inspections says it should need less than 10k- 15k in repairs mainly flooring and a bat issue in the attic (??) He can & would do the work, for a fee. Armed with this, my brain goes to investing. With his info and expertise in home repairs He's currently studying for his contractors license (I have no idea what that entails so I can not answer questions on that), I see a future. I have no readily available cash but we do have about 40-50k in home equity but I don't know if its wise to pull that out. Our credit is good (my husbands is 'very good') but with money as tight as it is I don't want to open any new bills. I'm open to the fact that I may need to change my mindset on that though. I want to be hands on in the process but my brother (whom I trust) will likely be the main on renovating. He will be splitting his time as he does still have to inspect the bank owned properties. I am not working with a realtor yet but have obtained the name of a local realtor who specializes in foreclosed properties. Please advi