I have never paid a guru or anyone else to invest my money for me.

ask questions.also, you have to have money to invest. 

Risks/rewards, benefits/pitfalls of hard money to me...what are they?  

I’m new to real estate investing and looking for input.

@Marcus Retter welcome to BP.It's a great community.I've been investing in Albuquerque for 10 years, and you can find some good deals there.Personally, I live in Santa Fe.There are several active Meetups that you can join to get around to other investors.Networking is really important.Get out there and make connections with other investors; that is how I got started. 

For example, a person can go to  a 10 —-13 week school for dental assistant… finish the course get a certificate and have an immediate job making somewhere around 43k plus.. yeah I know it’s not a ton of money, but it’s a good base especially for folks that don’t want to go to college.

It will be very important to have both in place because of the fact I will be investing out-of-state.

I invest in Ocala and really like it. 

Once the HELOC is in place, your father-in-law could loan you the funds to invest in real estate.

You can do a few deals like this and also get some money from the deals too.