One is purely financial & the other is emotional personal preference.If you were to make purely a financial decision, you would unemotionally look at the rates of return associated with each decision.I like that you are looking to pay off your consumer debt.Paying off a 18% credit card is equivalent to a 18% return on your money.Same with paying off a 4% mortgage.What is the rate of return of your $150k down payment buying your dream home?

Knock out your consumer debts and don't incur more.

If you put money up front require they have a surety bond for your job especially if it is big bucks, ask for liability and workers comp insurance certificates, check their license out, use a company that is registered at the Secretary of States office and check their standing, also Attorney generals office is making alot register for consumer protection these days.

I am a new investor in Fort Worth, Texas.I have a background in Residential Construction, Consumer Finance, Retail Banking, and currently am a partner in a Land Service Company in the Oil and Gas Industry (I am a Landman).I purchased my first property in July, did the rehab and put a tenant in it just under a month from closing.

@Justin Silverio (sorry - the @ doesn't work from my office computer)...Ironically enough, I was listening to a BP Podcast last night on the way home on 93north and you drove past me.

. :) @Jon Holdman Ironically, I see it as being the good guy. :) Definitely appreciated, by many upon many no doubt.Happy Friday!

Steam iron.

I flipped one house and built one spec house - which had to become a rental, although it is cash flowing $200 a month.But my one comment about your post is that you said that there were buy and hold investors who had enough cash flow to retire yet they ended up going bust.I don't see how thats possible unless they had more irons in the fire than just their buy and hold.

In the mean time, that vacant house will be scrapped, vandalized and possibly set on fire by a squatter crackhead.So you have a small chance of that 5th house producing income someday, and a very large chance that the house will consume cash to maintain and require tens of thousands of dollars in rehab to undo the damage done to it.There are thousands and thousands of houses in Detroit like this 5th house.

If your household income is $520k, you are in the top 1%.According to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a net worth of $416k puts you in the top 20% of American households.