My 1yr, 150k "Plan" - Need advice, and probably help.

[Elliot Mendoza]

So I am deploying in a few weeks to afghanistan and did a bit of number crunching to see what I -might- have by the time I come back in 9-10 months.

I currently have 35k in the bank.
I make 5.5k a month without deployment or tax free benefits
And I own a rental in NC that appraised for 210 about 3 months ago, and I cashflow about 230 a month on it.

I -had- planned on purchasing 30k worth of gold prior to leaving but lets say I just leave everything as liquid for numerical purposes.

In 9 months, 5.5*9 = 49.5k not including the extra deployment pays(about an extra 500 a month I think) or tax free. So lets say 40k, maybe I buy some **** while I'm out there (can't think of what but for safe numerical values). I don't have credit cards payments(but I do have 8 credit cards, and really don't know why), no car loan, and I won't have anything to pay on during my deployments, so everything essentially goes into my pocket. My credit is currently in the low 700's.

My renters lease ends in june, I asked my property manager who is also a realtor to pull up local comps for my property. The appraisal I received was based on it's rental value, but the comps for the same size property are between 215k-224k, so lets say I sell it put it for sale at 215k in june, pay all closing costs for the buyer, and pay for the HOA transfer fee, it should come out looking like this:
Sale: 215K
Commission: 3% - neg 6450
HOA Fee - 7500
Closing costs - also about 3% so 6500 approx.
I owe 95.4k on the mortgage right now, so 95k by the time i sell.

I -should- walk away with about 99.5k.

So in theory, 35k + 40k + 99.5k, I'll be sitting on ~174k to invest with in september of 2013. I'll even say 150k to be on the lower end side for safe numbers and just in case **** happens. Of course, not sure how long the property itself will take to sell, and I may be missing something in terms of cost.

That being all said, I -want- to buy and hold for long term investments. Quadruplex's are currently what's got my fancy the most, but I would also like to get into giant apartment complex's.

What I am reading here is that fix and flips might be the most profitable in the shorter term in order to build enough capital for the buy and hold properties.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to read or who to talk to?

Kind of feels odd putting myself out here to a bunch of strangers, but I figure if I want realistic suggestions, I should give realistic figures about myself. Any constructive criticism, idea's, suggestions, hand-walking and spoon feeding would be much welcomes. I just might need a burping and diaper change later if you're going to spoon feed me.

Thanks in advance.