.$500,000 will turn into $1,000,000 in less than 7 years.Great return and little to no work.You may want to consider spending $400,000 on stocks and $100,000 on a rental property.Take the $100,000 towards a property and see if you can make a return and handle the work involved.Best of luck!

Even if the new property only breaks even, you have shown an ability to handle the debt of the HELOC very well.

Tenant handles all utilities and lawncare.

I’ve never actually been legally owed money before so I was green on how to handle things while trying to be understanding and respecting other lifestyles and career choices.

In response to your original question, closing agents should handle private loans just like a bank loan. 

So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean?

They wrote me Commercial policies with high limits....only $100 mo roughly, never had a problem.I would just ask the company that handles your current home's insurance....some will do STR insurance, some won't.

He is an investor, investor focused realtor, STR property manager and handles everything from Step A-Z.

They need to handle their issues at home.

I also notice that @Gregory Schwartz mentioned Huntsville in particular—I definitely think that it’s a strong market for long-term appreciation.As for your concerns about investing out of state, I think an investment strategy that is as close to passive as possible would be best.A do-it-yourself approach—where you acquire a property, place a tenant, interview a bunch of property managers, and handle maintenance yourself—is going to be pretty tough to do remotely.