If you had 70k to start a portfolio with zero experience?

[Joshua Fields]

I have approximately 70k in equity in my house with a free and clear title. I plan to move in with my fiancé in the next year to year and a half, in her house, in a city 2 hours away. Also at the same time my daughter will be starting college in that same city. I would like to use the equity in the property with two goals in mind.

1. Provided housing for my daughter with no expense while she's in college.

2. Start to build a portfolio to provide a second income and a second career when I retire from my job in 10 years.

I've been reviewing option after option. The best options to me seems to be:

A. Sale the house, use a large portion of the money down along with borrowed money to invest in multi-family apartments?

B. Refinance the house I currently own for money down along with borrowed money to invest in multi-family apartments? Rent the house as single family and have the apartment. This poses a challenge for a person new real estate investing because of the distance between the properties.

C. Do what I previously discussed but with single family houses.