You will need to find partners, you will need to travel to where you wish to invest, you will need to understand the ins and outs of the business by being actively involved and treating it like a business and not some super passive investment.If you don't want to do that work I suggest you just put that 200k into some sort of diversified mutual fund that can make you 10+% on your money without any of the work of real estate.At the end of the day this is just my advice and I'm only a stranger on the internet.

But I do not buy bottom barrel properties in bad locations (busy roads, crime, eye-sore views) instead I focus on making a property one that the average modern family will want. 

We live in California at the moment and I have W2 job and my wife a small online business.

I have managed STRs for 10 years in Los Angeles, so I understand the business and operations.

I was raised in the land business and sold land exclusively for many years.

It’s a tax office, so I suspect they might be waiting to see how their business performs and the impact of technology before deciding.Thanks in advance for any advice or insights you can offer!

There are opinions on these forums and people have a right to them and people may take it as criticism. real estate is not a business where everyone is friendly and just as you have shown from whoever was trying to scam you and has nothing to do with doing your best, its about being educated before moving forward. 

I'd like to keep savings and be able to hire out some of the work (something we have not done in the past).My thoughts are to put both into an LLC and look for investors or a business loan, and purchase and move to a new home.

Purchase price: $650,000 Cash invested: $138,000 My business partner and I picked up this 25 lot mobile home park in Owensboro through a wholesaler.

So to answer your question, there is financing available for certain properties that have good business plans.