Unless you can do that I would start paying off my 401k debt and learn to raise private capital. expansion is good, but you are trading a lot of net worth for cash flow. learn to leverage outside capital so you're adding to equities rather than shuffling them.

Also, I have no experience in trades or homebuilding, both of which (in hindsight) would have been nice to work on.Any general or anecdotal advice would be much appreciated.

What was the outcome?

What was the outcome?

The problem is that the majority do exactly that, but a great professional real estate agent knows what boxes to check and the tricks of the trade.

Conventional mortgage What was the outcome?

If you have U.S. credit, 2 scores must show with at least 2 years of trade line history.

Its a trade off. 

However, for commercial properties in Colorado Springs it is common to see deals trade at a 5% cap rate.

I am a luxury watch dealer by trade, but I've been looking to get into real estate investing.