After reading a few books (one of them being "Rich Dad Poor Dad" ofcourse) the idea of switching to a job to learn instead of working solely for money seemed interesting.

i think that appreciation is probably a bit too rich, its more likely to be flat in the next 3 yrs... i think houston has overshot its value relative to other metros, you can probably google articles about it being overpriced relative to other major metros.  

For example if you wanted to purchase multi families for cashflow: You could quickly check sales of duplexes/fourplexes etc. in the last 6 months to get a feel for ARV's.

They benefit from a higher rent and you can build a portfolio quickly.

it seems as if option #1 allows you to quickly scale with less money (basically furniture and a security deposit) but has the downside of lower margins since you're not building equity.I've also thought of other ideas such as buying a few properties under a llc with several other investors, where the total cash per person would be the same as if you bought 1 property by yourself but it's diversified across different markets and reduced risk.

On quick review, the house looks good, nice and finished.The only thing I noticed is that there is plenty of horse parking, but no car parking.  

My point is, if we do decide to purchase a residential property over commercial, we'll likely go FHA and then pay down the 22% quickly to shed the PMI. 

I also work in different parts of town, so we're interested in something very central, hopefully in a decent (or very soon to be decent) neighborhood with good/quick access to different parts of the city.

I am eager to build my portfolio quickly, but I want to be smart about it.  

@Rich HupperYou can't borrow agains or from your IRA!