@Ryan Murphy, I don't see it as an advantage or disadvantage, nor would it factor into my decision from a development standpoint.If your're genuinely interested in the neighbor's lot, you might want to start planting seeds with them for that now... who's to say that they won't sell it out from underneath you should someone approach them about buying it between now and your someday?

What I'm not sure of is whether I should make a small Rental business, using the money as seed capital to secure a larger line of credit (and therefore buying more rental properties).

Plus, he probably brought weed seeds from other houses on his mower, and there was a big bermuda grass infestation.

You got to start from the seed, to get to the root, to get to the fruit.

You are missing the most important thing you can buy yourself,an education.You need to meet with professional wholesalers who have been doing this successfully for some time and ask them how they do it.Apprentice yourself to them for free doing their ground pounding work learning the business as a young college student intern would.Learn how to put together a large list of cash buyers and flippers who need the properties you find to sell them.Learn how to carve out a good territory to farm that has several homes sold in the last two years for top dollar prices and sold the fastest (less than 30 days).Learn how to use postal workers,utilities people,and others to spot bad houses that might be able to be bought cheap.Use high school students involved in sports teams or band to seed your farm with cards and fliers door to door at every property and give them a tax deductible donation to their groups.Promise them a bigger wad of cash if you sell a house they bird dog for you(tax deduction!).

I did a cash out refinance and use that as seed money to buy my next rental house.

Hello,I'm looking at opening up a HELOC on my primary residence to use as seed money to start investing.

Then you have to know which seed mfg  is being used .

Also, this particular town has a k-12 school but only 2 businesses, a mechanic shop and a seed store.

Venture Capitalists will still able to bring in seeded money at least for months.