I wouldn't be opposed to having a little skin in the game (closing costs, inspections, etc) I would be living there paying market rent and doing the improvements myself.

Hello Tiffani Hollis, Congratulations on stepping into the realestate game.

Keep in mind of the I/O(payments/period) and game plan on how fast you'd like to pay it down. 

We had been to lots of seminars and guru programs looking for a way to get into the real estate game. 

If you can be in the new build STR game at $800k plus, you are getting equity at close, which is a bit mind boggling. 

Truckee has some tight STR laws and if you're in that game I'd stay.  

Howdy, I have been in the game for about 10 years now and have mid seven figures of real estate assets. 

Don't play the blame game.

Learn everything about real estate like it's your favorite video game and show your wife how passionate you are and how much you believe in real estate.

Then connect with some hard money lenders (you can find some here on BP as well as some who are typing this right now) and connect with them to understand their product type, what they like to lend on and requirements.Hard money broker is all numbers game of making relationships and helping those that are looking for financing, it starts out slow but if you get with a few good borrowers and lenders it can be pretty decent money to be made.As an example we paid six figures last year to HM brokers.