Hi Will in Chicago-Congratulations on having a paid off rental with 500K in equity.You are wondering what options may be available to put that equity to work and you are not interested in buying another traditional rental.One suggestion I would offer is to put some of the equity to work by becoming a private money lender partnering with an investor that would split the profits with you on short-term projects.You could turn that money over and over into the next project getting a higher return than the trapped equity and getting a lien position on the project property to protect your downside investing in a fairly passive way.To Your Success!

Also make sure you protect yourself with the correct contract documents. https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp

If yes, then the other partners can just do a JV agreement internally which you can record at closing that allows you to still “partner” up on it but allowing the lender to still be protected if anything goes wrong with the deal or people borrowing. 

Consider whether an LLC is right for you—it can provide liability protection but isn’t essential for a single property, as personal liability insurance and an umbrella policy may suffice.

Always protect your downside.Until next time.

In some cases, it may not be possible to purchase and store materials, but if it is, that is one way to protect your budget and avoid a costly mistake.The last thing I would offer for you to think about is having a pivot plan. 

My firm integrated the services together and our clients have loved the one stop shopping for all RE accounting, tax, asset protection and entity work. 

The other benefit to verify is if you have loss protection.

Bit more paperwork, but you get paid twice.Flat Fee + Profit Split (Repair Funding): You cover the repairs, but you set a minimum fee (like $15K) to protect yourself.

My comments were geared toward the protections provided an investor after going under contract and prior to closing.