If your plan is to get into short term rentals, just make sure that the deal you do can also work as a long term rental or mid term rental if you need to end up going that route instead. 

Never went the Sponsor route, but will say they do make more money and do a bit more work. 

Slower, but less debt than the heloc route. 

My advice would be to only go the auction route if you're a experienced investor.

Ask them questions first, try to get more of an understanding as to how it works before you start to go down the guru route.  

Also, if you choose the rental portfolio route, be realistic.

I will be using Lifeproof from Home Depot, if anyone has gone this route before.

I do have one house in Memphis bought in 2018 so I’ve dipped into the out of state game already so I’m not scared to go that route again.

Trying to go the seller financing route may severely limit your buying pool. 

There are two idea I’m batting around in my head right now to get started on my REI journey – I can do it purely on the investing side and become a private lender or a source of hard money loans to builders/developers (maybe that looks like funding a construction loan collecting interest payments while buying time to better understand the dynamics and build relationships) or I can JV/partner with a builder and get equity (upside on a flip/sale) which would be more hands on.Curious what ya’ll input, what you think is the best route for me to dip my toes into REI given my aforementioned situation and current market.