Hey Juliette,
I'm not familiar with Nashville at all, so I won't give any specific advice on that market. However, I would definitely first invest in my education in real estate. There is no one best investment. Investing requires a plan so that you may work your plan. It's of utmost importance to first figure out what you want out of real estate. Not for just the short term, either. You ought to start with some goals and figure out how you will achieve those goals. Then see how those first goals coincide with longer term goals. Once you've found out what it is you really want to accomplish, you will be much more clear on how to employ your loan.
With regards to a specific strategy: if I were in your shoes, I'd be looking for rental properties to help replace an unsteady occupation. This may or may not work in Nashville, but if you could find some distressed homeowners in pre-foreclosure, I'd focus on doing some sandwich lease options. If it's manageable, tell them you'll take over their payments moving forward (they can begin paying off the payments that are behind) and then lease the property out to a tenant. They still pay taxes and insurance until you actually buy the property. Assuming you can use your loan for such, you'll have enough capital to cover holding costs and use a tenant placement agency. Then you'll be getting cash flow. You'd have to spend some time learning your market and setting up a sellers and renters list to minimize risk. So, let's say it requires $20k out of pocket for each property you do this for and you can net $300 a month. 10 properties in and $3000 net cash flow should do some good. I leave it up to the other members on the forum to validate how viable this would be in Nashville, but it's just a thought.
And @Jared DeValk , it's pretty immature to pick fights with people you don't know and who are offering advice, regardless of how you deem their advice.
