Congrats, it's always uplifting to see real life success stories.i can share that just having this first taste of income not from your own labor is indeed liberating.i would like to throw in the mix that "retirement" is not necessarily meant to spend all your day doing nothing. it's a great time to develop as a human being and as a person. learn new skills - painting, playing a music instrument, surfing whatever...the real goal is not  to drop out of life, it's to increase your level in life.hope this helps throwing some ideas into the new found freedom

I just put up the seed money for a 165 lot development here in Oregon. and will put up the other costs as you state. with the goal to get it platted and flip to Horton or lennar both are interested and both are beating each other up in our market :)so you don't have specific tastes IE resi commercial etc. 

Like Buckley's, it tastes awful, and it works.  

Your tastes may change and you'll find your niche or niches.You say you want to stay away from banks but a deal might be a perfect fit for a conventional loan.

As far as an area or neighborhood, there's a great selection but, as in most cities, it widely depends on your taste and needs.

Which path you choose is a matter of personal taste.

Cannot afford any more delays on this project, engineer and surveyer have already milked this project into a two year ordeal, we are so close to getting final plat I can taste it. 

Big corporations that have the right idea, for the banks and leave a bad taste in the small guys mouth.For instance, you find a great R.E.O. u look into it and find out that Auction this or that has taken over sale of the property.

My true passion is in renovating single-family homes, though - I got a taste of if when I realized the home I was living in wouldn't sell for what I owed on it. 

Not my taste, but someone put in a lot of effort on that one.