Use some for buy and hold (I personally would prefer apartments rather than buying a few single family homes) and some for lending/trust deed investing.In either category, you must know what you are doing, know how to vet the investment, how to vet the sponsor (if investing in a larger fund of some sort), the laws and regulations on the lending side, how to investigate which areas to invest in buy and hold and notes/trust deeds for that matter.So as you have already said several times, lots to think about . . . 

I operate several mid term rentals and I'm still a big fan. 

Quote from @Peter Thielemann: Thank you Jonathan, I have a family member that has several successful rental properties and is walking me through the process.

@Christian Licata I realized I wasn’t going to get anywhere just sitting on the sidelines and so I spent several weeks analyzing my target market and ended up choosing a SFH that was in a great location.

I made offers of several properties, waited and monitored the countdown for the live auction to begin which never actually happened. 

Due to a severe housing shortage for locals, Truckee is more favorable for long-term rentals.

Here are some numbers: Current PITI: $3,970Estimated rent: $4500-$5000 (there are several homes within 4 blocks of mine that owners have turned into rentals and I've been able to compare online pics to our home, so I am confident this is a good estimate)Sq ft: 1790Estimated sale price today: 1150000-1250000Mortgage balance: 612,000I would self manage. 

The first commercial option was sold to someone else and we are in escrow for the condo one but ready to fold that deal due to several reasons that have made us lose faith that this is a good investment.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Taxes are based off what you paid, and I've bought several in the 90-150k range that with rehabs are appraising in the 400-500k range.