Hi @Catherine Hensley,
I'm a newbie as well (this is my first post actually), so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I agree with everything posted so far about this being a great opportunity for you and your husband to potentially create some additional income. I would recommend doing plenty of research on what being a landlord actually entails before you buy a house and use it as a rental property. Unless you have a hire a property manager, landlording can definitely not always be a form of passive income. However, if you're willing to do the work, rental properties can be a great way to begin creating wealth. I've read a good amount of books in the past few months, so I'll share a couple that I feel are the best bang for your buck when first getting stared:
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (not specific real estate info, but will absolutely change the way you think about money)
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner (goes over every stage of purchasing/managing a property)
The BiggerPockets podcast is great too. But let's say you read these books and decide that owning rental property is too much for you right now (you said you and your husband have children), there are still other ways to create much more passive forms of wealth. You could look into multifamily syndication deals (I'm not well-read on this so maybe someone else could chime in), or you could invest that money in the stock market. I know this is a real-estate forum, but if you choose to explore this route, 2 great books are The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins, and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle.
Hope this helps :)
Jason
