Thanks for putting it together.

The world values your money at 3 or 4% with no risk. 8 or 10% with moderate risk.

My wife and I are about to put our WI lakehouse out as a STR this year.

Any brokerage can be the right fit for you so long as you commit to taking initiative and putting in the work.By 'work', I mean income-producing activities (lead generation and follow-up) i.e. cold calling, door-knocking, contacting your sphere of influence, networking, hosting open houses, running online advertising, marketing (paper or online), or anything else that will get you in front of prospective clients.My first broker rarely answered my phone calls and by the time she responded, I'd often already have the answer I was looking for.

I think he's in the process right now so I'm not sure how it's turned out, but last time I spoke with him it seemed that it was going well.I always tell people looking to do co-living that there is a certain amount of risk that you have to be willing to take on.

No problem, though—I can get close to $100K saved by the end of the year, so I’ll be in a much stronger position.My question is, is there a specific number I should be striving for that would put me in a good position to invest in real estate?

As there are Californians still moving here, the vast majority are instead picking the states with low or no state income tax like Texas, Florida, or Tennessee.Although we still have a positive influx of people moving here, more people have been leaving due to rising housing costs in recent years.To put it in perspective, we saw around +45k in the 2010's.Overall, CO is basically a balanced net migration in recent years which is likely to keep home prices steady....

With no debt, I have about saved $50,000 that I want to start putting to use, been trying to submerge myself in the real estate world knowing its arguably the safest investment.

And you have to constantly put work in - this system doesn't turn unless you keep pushing it. 

While the general rule of thumb is "don't put real estate into a corporation," if you're buying and selling real estate as "inventory," an S corporation can save you taxes.