If you have large debt with a high interest rate, I would consider paying that off before getting started investing in real estate. 

Airbnb.org, the nonprofit arm of airbnb.com, offers hosts options to assist with emergency housing in times of crisis, such as the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

Highly recommended.

Since you’re considering Midwest markets, I’d highly recommend adding Detroit to your list of cities to research.

I'm a real estate investor in other parts of the country but not NY due to the extremely high buy in price.

Telling sellers everything wrong with their house and justifying your offer with repair costs doesn’t build trust—it kills it.

While I do maintain a relatively modest percentage of my assets in money market instruments, corporate debt funds, and high dividend stocks, I remain most comfortable with the investments I specialize in and know best.  

With $4+ million in equity, you could conservatively leverage your replacement property(ies) and generate strong passive cash flow from high quality NNN assets.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

and they charge per door and not sure if they even offer everything that I want.