If you use an FHA loan as an individual, you’ll benefit from a low down payment (3.5%) and more lenient qualification requirements, but you won’t have liability protection, and the loan will stay in your name when it becomes a rental.Using a conventional loan through an LLC offers liability protection and scalability for future investments but requires a larger down payment (15-25%) and often comes with higher interest rates.If maximizing cash-on-cash return is your goal, FHA might be the better starting point.

STRs require more hands-on management, but it’s a viable option for reducing your taxable income without needing REPS.You might also consider a cost segregation study to accelerate depreciation on the rental, creating larger upfront paper losses.

Bigger Pockets is a great place for education and networking. 

Focused on reading, learning, listening and networking in the short term.

I accepted the family with a larger security deposit. 

Networking at local real estate meetups is also great for building relationships with other investors who might know of deals.

Are you looking to increase cash flow with every sale and purchase or keep building equity to buy a larger property down the road?

A minor hurdle for some, but a larger issue to some as well.With DSCR or private money lending, yes, you can still also vest in your individual names, but you will find many lenders will NOT allow it or will actually charge you higher rates to do so. 

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 . . . 

Networking with other OOS investors and shared knowledge and experience.FS seemed to have all the answers so I bit the bullet and paid 15k to get it going. ( I know, but hindsight is 20/20).