With your budget, you could potentially house hack or grab two smaller properties to diversify your investments. 

With that capital, I’m planning to either dive into a larger multifamily project in Detroit or grab a small duplex or quad in San Francisco.To reach that $500k mark, I’m leaning on the power of cash-out refinancing.

I grabbed my multi meter and showed them the voltage in the water . 

We should grab a coffee!

And just the other day, I was grabbing coffee with a friend who reps a group of invsetors out in San Antonio.. they got burned early on by not clarifying their rental criteria, picking up a triplex that sounded good on paper but turned out to have a revolving door of problematic tenants.A baseline business plan isn’t just a mind-numbing exercise.. it’s the guardrail that keeps your momentum from swerving off into the ditch.

Sit back and grab some popcorn.I will chop this up into smaller segments, so each one isn't too long of a read and has a central theme.Both Retiring and doing Self Storage, we hit the mark where we both had the funding and the time to invest overseas. 

My first question is do I pick a good, better, best system that costs from less to more $$ and do I justify the more expensive energy efficient system to grab a little higher rents since tenants will save money.

G'Day Luka,I'm not a fan of out of state BRRRR.It's hard enough for us on the ground to get rehabs done on time and on budget and I don't even want to think how difficult, expensive and time consuming it would be for out of state investors.And then include a high LTV and that can be a portfolio killer IMO.Hat's off to you mate for grabbing the bull and jumping in.You live, you make mistakes, you learn and you grow.Such is life.Building a large portfolio is an absolute must when investing in sub $100,000 properties in Ohio.I "killed" my business by not wanting to sell to investors that are using leverage.Our sales volume could increase by 70-80% but it is what it is.I just don't believe in it or want the hassle associated with it lolReason is mostly two fold:1) Not in the mood to deal with lenders for 2 months and hope the deal will go through.2) I don't believe that investors should use high LTV when building the foundation of their portfolio.My advice to you:1) Pay them off as quickly as you can.2) Build a larger portfolio.The investors that $#@% the most on my name are the ones that buy 1 or 2 properties and expect miracles.As you said, 1 furnace goes out or a sewer line needs repaired and bye bye cashflow for 2 years.We get blamed although we can't predict to fix certain things and there are just many unknowns with all investments.Our happiest investors are the ones that own 6-7 or even 10+ properties and all with cash and no leverage.They aren't worried about turns or tenant issues that occur on 1 or 2 properties as it's just the nature of the beast.Returns vary but across the board over the last 10 years I have seen 6-10% net ROI's year after year.Building a large portfolio is a must to minimize risk and to get the best possible long term ROI.Thanks 

I’ve done a 1031 exchange into a nicer SFR, then a cash out refi on the new house later on to grab some of that equity.

@William Kwong- it's been a while. we should grab coffee again.