There are several safe harbors that you can take as a small business operator.

Using an LLC to invest is a common way to keep assets safe and might help with taxes, but you need to know all the rules and how it affects your money.

The safe route is to save up the money first, but investing does carry risk and everyone has a different level of risk tolerance.

I look forward to continuing to learn from the BiggerPockets community as I navigate my real estate investing journey.I’ve had some success on the eastern shore of Maryland, though even that market has started to frankly become expensive, there are still pockets of potential growth both rent & appreciation, thoigh it’s becoming harder to find, also there is a massive rental shortage out there, a county I just put a property contract on, literally has 3 properties for rent right now, but it does make rental comps quite difficult, outside of that I’ve started looking a little more into western Md and some southern pa markets but still trying to get a feel for them, overall I think in this market places that are affordableish and have some draw will do well with the continued wfh + affordability crisis but keep in mind while I think the eastern shore is actually fairly safe market for the most part a lot of rural areas definitely have boom bust potential and in theory more risk than dc metro, though the low price points do by definition tend to mitigate some of those risks. 

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

It's safe to say that your HOA will increase each year especially with inflation, how high rates are right now and will continue into 2025.

Any other tidbits you can share I think would be great for the BP folks so they can learn to do sub 2 wraps correctly and safely..

The self-manager isn't paying a property manager, but if the self-manager is leaving out the "managing" part, then almost certainly (s)he is giving up lost revenues that far exceed paying someone to actually manage the property.Managing means you are responding promptly to all inquiries, monitoring rates and comps daily and making adjustments as necessary, ensuring that the property is safe and clean, that everything is operational, and quick responses and resolutions when something goes haywire.  

So can all-cash investing FEEL "safe", simple, "easy", yup sure can.