Long term versus short term deployment of capital is usually the biggest differentiator. 

. #3) Capital planning/strategy For maximum efficiency you should have at least a rough idea of the phases of deploying capital.

It acts as an emergency fund In my opinion while it’s not deployed anywhere, and god for bid you have a large capex item go that you might not be 100% prepared for and you can resolve it immediately.

Try not to buy too much too fast just so you can feel comfortable that the strategy that you're deploying is working as expected.  

I have family in Sacramento and Roseville and was hoping to deploy some capital there.

If your current local real estate market had tons of obvious opportunities I might say otherwise, but trying to start your real estate portfolio investing out of state and deploying $200k seems like a tall order. 

I have about 8.5 years active duty from deployments.

We deployed thousands and thousands of our capital to a specific borrower that met very specific guidelines as set forth in our credit policy manual.

There are multiple options and strategies you can deploy in the area.

You need to deploy that cash for the next one asap and keep repeating.