Also, I would find a local REI meeting to pick the brain of those that have or are already doing this.

As much as you probably want to do a ton of research, with the amount of neighborhoods that would be good for investment opportunities, there's only so much research you can do before your brain just hits a wall.

It triggers "fear of loss" in a persons brain which is what causes them to write offers.

I have some of my own ideas on what to do with this cash but want to pick other people brains as to what to do with it.

If you want to learn more about investing and house hacking, I would consider speaking with a realtor that is knowledgeable on that topic and pick their brain.

Pick his brain.

Myself, I have almost 3 decades in the housing industry professionally, I have performed at the highest level of skill, licensure and quality in literally every single aspect of real estate from point of raw land planning and development, building design, build, renovation, remediation, inspection, investing, contracts, negotiations, deal engineering etc etc, I am ridiculously over-the-top experienced and qualified and that is why clients go with myself AND my team, it's not my beautiful Shrek like smile, it's my beautiful brain and decades of knowledge and performance because they know any issue that could come up, I have probably dealt with it 18 times before if not 180 and I can solve it.

(NOT including his $50k “brain trust” thing…)

In my wild brain, I'd like to also understand land development. 

Don't get me wrong, I still like nice things, arguably more than most, I definingly have my diva streak who loves flying 1st class and all the shiny fancy things, it's just that I have wired my brain differently in the how to obtain method of this.