What would you do with $25,000?

[Dan Bee]

Let’s say that you had $25,000 and you wanted to invest in real estate somehow. But there’s a stipulation. You can’t use any additional monies i.e. partnering up, financing, etc. What would you invest in and how would you go about making the most bang for your buck?

[Matt Faircloth]

Hey Dan,

You really pose an interesting question as you limit the investment to cash only - no financing and no partnerships.  This really forces some creativity!

Here are some options:

1.  Buy property in a lower priced area like Trenton NJ per @Victor Barcik 's recommendation.  Trenton is my primary investment location and its hard to beat the returns as the properties rent very well versus the purchase price.  That being said, my concern is that the purchase will take all that $25,000 cash with no money left to rehab the house or for reserves.  Trenton houses do sell for $25,000 or less but most need work at that price.

2. Would see what you could do to double it up in 6 months.  The best way to do that is to invest in some marketing as @Cecil Russell  recommended but I wouldn't go so far as investing in infrastructure to setup a long term business .  I am not a big fan of Wholesaling long term and wrote a whole article about it on BP recently, but it can be a means to an end.  If you can turn the $25,000 into $50,000 and then into $75K or $100K, you can use that seed capital to build long term wealth through rentals.

I hope that helps!

Matt