If not, you can continue to save or come up with a plan B/C/D, which might entail you finding a single family in an up and coming area, renovating it, and reveling in the instant equity.

I would encourage you to look at the spreadsheets available on here to run numbers and see what all it entails to own a home.

I understand from reading other posts that you do not need to be a real estate agent in order to invest in RE, but, I would like to learn more about the whole thing and what it entails.

Even a loaded gun in an experienced rifleman's hands can be the source of a lifetime of regret and sorrow.Leveraging in general entails significant financial risks, and combining creative options with leverage magnifies those risks.

., so $4400.What is entailed with pursing a tenant (out of state) in time and approx. dollar amounts with legal fees?

I'm skeptical about this because I have no expertise with rehabbing properties, and, as Scott pointed out to me, the numbers are even more complicated and entail more risk than pledging my 401(k).So I am very uncertain as to how to proceed.

I'd imagine the first isn't a severe enough change to increase the profitability substantially, the second requires learning a new strategy (and everything that entails), and the third requires learning a new market (and having access to it, physically/logistically and financially).

What does representation entail?

@Eric Mulhern   Sounds like what your business practice entails from the DRE standpoint is that you are selling RE without a license..

Some are very good at managing and others fail at it.I remember being a teacher years ago and I disliked it because most of the job entailed managing students, attending meetings, grading papers, attending parent-teacher conferences, coaching basketball, managing my time, and managing my classroom.