Money in index funds is smart while you figure out what you want out of real estate.

For people doing the kind of research required for probate leads without easily available owner indexed info, they may need to consider the national data companies serving their area such as RealQuest, etc.

But I am actively saving for retirement, mostly invested in index funds, and I hadn't considered that I could use some of these retirement funds.

OOS investing is definitely not as easy as it looks - it's not click on the Zillow button like you're buying index funds (it may have been in 2008 to 2021 but not in 2023 going forward).  

So I made a compromise with myself, instead of putting that $100 directly to my principle, I'm opening a brokerage account that will have $100 deposited into it automatically every month and invested in index funds using dollar cost averaging method.

If nothing else, prices are down a couple of points this year in Denver, so that's a relative positive over my last purchase.If I was 20 years older, and had 20 more years of compounding and contributions in my 401(k), the private lending world would be a major part of my portfolio strategy right now, as I think yields are really attractive there.It's tough out there, but I trust what I know in small residential more than going all in on more index funds or bitcoin, and lending is just too tax inefficient until I have more time to build wealth in my SDIRA.  

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In that case I'd likely sell the ones you lived in and move that money to a high yield savings account or low risk index fund. 

if you want to be totally passive... buy an index fund and don't buy rentals.)

As a thought exercise, if I were to sell and take my $45K of equity and put it in an index fund earning inflation-adjusted 7% return, it would take 16 years for that to turn back into my original $130K.