@Jason White,My first impulse is to say no matter how much you have available you'll want to invest for income in retirement to ensure that your money is growing at such a rate that you drawing your living expenses from it will not deplete the principal during your expectable lifetime.You may want to read up on self-directed retirement accounts and other ways of being a private money lender.My personal thoughts on buying property with no loans is that its roughly equivalent to gambling in the Wall Street Casino.

The only shortcuts are ones like walking into a Vegas casino and risking way too much.

those areas are closer to the river (casinos), closer to 95...northern liberties is a trend thats on its downside considering the amount of money pouring into the area over the past decade is just criminal....kinda tough to get in there for a profit.if you are stuck on a multi-family in north philly...look around temple.

My friends sit around and smoke cigars with me and we ***** about living in Cook County when free America is 30 minutes away and they ***** about their job at JP Morgan Chase and I ***** about no profit in contracting and we both ***** about how we're not getting enough cashflow and they ***** about how their Logan Square condos that aren't performing and then we ***** about the new Bond theme song that isn't as good as the one from Casino Royale and then we see a hot girl walk by and then we ***** about why hot girls congregate in blue states and then we talk about guns.

I have a property in Rohnert park right next to the Graton Casino I bought in mid 90s for 27k  4 acres tax's 200 a year just sits there.. just put it on the market for 3 million will take two though  :)  its all perspective.. and where you live I made more on my bay area properties in appreciation than I could have possibly hoped to make in a life time leveraging small dollar rentals or drip income at 200 a month per door.. but to be fair I am not an investor I am a business owner and we create income with commission s Points  interest delta building new homes etc etc.. average investor cant do that .. they don't have the skill sets or experience to get the financing to pull this stuff off.So I totally get the buy a rental house try to scale it for the average W 2 or high income earner who is focused on their career.  

The market has become too much of a casino for my liking.

And this using a 203K FHA loan in the brutal market of Boston, on the east side of the Port Norfolk bay area.Facts & Numbers:2 beds & 2 baths on each of the 3 unitsPurchased for $655K @ 5% down-payment and a generous dose of 203K closing feesTaken a 30K cushion for the 203K streamlined rehabLocked in 4.25% @ 30 year interest rateAppraised at 750KThe numbers are certainly not the exquisite definition of what a ground-breaking deal stands for, but they certainly fare decently well in this seller's market where cash investors rule, the inventory is constantly challenged and most properties are getting sold for over asking price, taking advantage of the current interest rates, the Everett Casino construction, and a few other speculative but pragmatic plays.Just like most everyone else that was not raised or surrounded by real estate professionals from a young age, this deal was pretty much riddled with small mistakes here and there, from neglecting the fire department smoke and carbon detector regulations, being over-optimistic on the underwriting guidelines, underestimating the cost opportunity due to all sorts of processing delays, and you name it.Currently free from tenants, the expectation is to add value by rehabilitating the under-developed basement, adding 2nd and 3rd floor balcony decks, and a variety of practical and aesthetic fixes.

After some research, I realized I could get a job at a number of casinos in Florida, where property can be had for much cheaper than here, while rents can still make them cash flow.

.* improvement in my spouses RE brokerage due to REOs* increased rents received and lower mortgage payments* the fact that Dallas did not have a housing bubble and thus the correction has been mild* having never invested in the rigged casino, err - I mean US stock markets.

Fiat Crysler just announced a 2.5 billion dollar Jeep plant on the east side of Detroit (18.May.19).Greektown casino was bought for 1 billion dollars today by investors seeing the potential (23.May.19).Investors who bought in downtown Detroit in 2014 have already seen their pockets bulge 3-4 times.The believers argue that the cascades are now on to the Detroit suburbs and it's metro.And there is REAL opportunity for those seeking High Yields and Cap Growth.