I'd just get quotes and do a soft pull.

This should keep the Fed on track to cut short-term interest rates by May.CBRE expects the U.S. economy to slow this year and achieve a rare soft landing rather than a full-blown recession.

Talked with many hard money lenders and got several soft quotes. 

Like mentioned above, there are plenty of safe alternatives that work for younger kids- putting green, cage basketball, soft ax throw etc 

The economy seems to be doing ok and on pace for a soft landing.

Regardless of where you go, with $40,000 typically would best be used as either soft cost (due diligence) money on a new construction for sale project, or alternatively you can buy a $200,000 property, putting 20% down. 

A couple that come to mind are Madera County (Oakhurst, North Fork, Bass Lake) and Placer County (Loomis, Auburn, Newcastle).

Typically I contribute around $35k towards soft costs (due diligence) and my LP investors (primarily high networth individuals) contribute the funds needed to build the project from an equity standpoint (approximately $150k because we utilize construction bridge financing).I have found that on my 4-6 month construction deals, investors target around 22-30% ROI.For longer term investments where you were to collect a management fee (i.e., rentals), you would likely benefit from raising the majority of the capital, and contributing very little so that your liquidity is not tied up into any one deal.

We have many soft commits from our LPs excited to work with us seeing as we have typically said no in the past (either we were not ready to take on investor dollars/wanted to build more of a solid foundation first) so we are excited to generate great returns for others that we have been able to do for ourselves for several years. 

Its a soft credit check to apply which does not impact your score.