Your advice will be greatly appreciated as I aim to identify the most viable areas for investment.

Some might have a strong NNN tenant in place with 10+ years left on the lease, and it might be a big corporation that you can take to court if they ghost on paying their rent, while others might be office suites broken up into small offices on 6-36 month leases with shaky tenants like a nutrition supplement MLM that uses the office for 3x a week rah rah meetings on how to recruit more people into the pyramid scheme, that are immune to law suits b/c you can't squeeze juice out of a rock.

First option is to sell the house immediately and utilize those funds (~100k) to supplement the cost. 

If yes, then aim for a specific avatar and nail it! 

The eventual income from real estate will supplement our retirement and SS so we can do the things we want to do with our time.The best part is our kids will be in a much better place financially due to this and it can change our family tree forever.Funding:HELOC on CondoW2 JobsLightStreamEstimated Equity:4/18/2023 - $165k4/19/2024 - $207kEstimated Value of Assets:4/18/2023 - $232k4/19/2024 - $1MNothing wildly impressive for equity growth, but if our portfolio property values average 3% growth annually, we are getting $30k in appreciation instead of $7k.

I would supplement with some HELOC funds as long as you calculate the HELOC payment when considering the investment property. 

For sure, I am aiming to maintain a long-term relationship with people on my team.

Purchase price: $500,000 Cash invested: $100,000 Purchase aimed at creating a steady income stream, while also offering significant potential for long-term appreciation.

Once you're actually looking to buy, aim to get a property with only cosmetic issues, in a decent area that doesn't have bad tenants.

These expenses would be reported on Schedule E (Supplemental Income and Loss) of your tax return.Since you incurred these expenses before you started renting out your property, you can typically depreciate the cost of the furnishings and any improvements made to the property over their useful life.