Hey @Robert Brown, welcome to BP and the Florida investing community.Since you're new to the site, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of BP and kickstart your investing career:Start here.

I have read a few books on RE investing and it seems like House Hacking would be the most appealing option to kickstart my journey to financial independence.First, I am not local to this country and don’t know much about local markets.

There are individuals purchasing leases from STR lease brokers and while that is the same situation relateive to accountability, the "finders fee" is much less expensive $1K - $3KThere is value in a mastermind group to kickstart your learning experience.

Do you wait it out or is there something you do to kickstart it again?

Not fully abandoning design, as it can be packaged in, but rather design alone just isn't worth an agent's time.To kickstart the photography aspect will take a little bit of cash as my camera is pretty out-dated and I could use some real estate specific lenses.

A kick-start to knowing the Wilmington, Delaware market.

We also recently joined the Altanta REIA and I'm sure that there are at least some BiggerPockets members who we'll bump into there.And lastly, thanks Josh and Brandon for kick-starting such a fantastic resource and community of like minded investors!

Hi Natalie,There are some great cashflow markets in upstate NY where you can secure properties very cheaply and get an awesome cap rate.These types of markets and properties are very time intensive as they are situated in a lower socio economic area.Well done on saving the $8,000.Before I became a full time investor I worked as a laborer and it took me 4 years of very hard work before I managed to save a decent deposit ($40,000) to kick start my real estate venture.IMO you will need a bit more capital to get cracking but until then keep living and breathing real estate and ask questions or other investors that are already where you want to be.Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Very motivating for the many of us on here that are contemplating the same thing--- maybe we need a little "kick start" like your post did for me.lots of luck!

Your plan to use $1M from selling your business to kickstart your real estate journey sounds exciting.