Get lower paying job when fInally let go. 2-leave area foR saMe salary range and sell current rentals since I am not comfortable being long distance landlord. 3-cash out and pay taxes and penalties on ~$200k 401k and really jump start my rental portfolio to replace lost income. 4- some combination of these.

There are these two modern tropes, one being that the rich are greedy, the other being that the poor are lazy. 

However, on Groundfloor you can only invest in individual properties, and can't easily pool your risk like you can through buying shares of equity investment eREIT's which are offered on many of the platforms.I have seen some sites which combine debt/equity investments into an eREIT, but I haven't seen any debt only offerings for some reason.

@Luz PaganWhen you say you want to enlarge a room, do you mean to have an addition to the house built, or do you mean you tear out a wall and combine two rooms?

Milwaukee also has become hip for a young crowd, who enjoy the quality of living, economic opportunities and an entrepreneurial vibe combined with a relativley low cost of living.As mentioned before choice of area is critical.

Many things go into determining value such as location, condition, quality, schools, modern (open floor plans), size of lot, etc. 

@Jeshua Patrick, in my opinion it all comes down to a combination of things.How desperate are you for a new start that may change your life? 

You could do a combination by putting a down payment on a rental and keeping the rest in stocks, see if you even like being a landlord before jumping in with both feet. 

Rent and occupancy rates are a combination of management and market conditions! 

The other side of rental investments is what I call DIY rentals -  which means the investor either hunts for deals themselves, hires an agent, uses a friend who lives in the market, or some combination thereof.