I though about giving real estate a try which is why I started reading online a bit about real estate, made a purchase order for the book "Rental Property Investing" and came across BiggerPockets. 

First, i would not furnish the places, it will probably get trashed, let them get there own furnishings and make sure that the lease says they must remove them from the property when they leave. i would have them pay for utilities, to an extent - have them pay for electric, supply the heat but give them an allowance for certain amount of months ( especially if you have older furnaces and they run on oil heat ) if they go over then you charge them for it. i converted mine to gas with new furnaces, i include heat in mine, but i control the thermostat ( online, thermostat is locked at the house ). i also provide water / sewer and free internet.

If you find a lender who does online appraisals or creative structuring, you might be able to find a 2nd lender.

A large amount of savings is a good thing!

But then there is saved mortgage insurance because I brought the 20% cash but they are getting the advantage of it.  

I've read some articles online about how LA is cracking down on landlords who boot rent control tenants out and convert their units into Airbnb rentals. 

Erasing any potential savings we had, and a lot more headaches. 

You can post what you do in your profile (and we encourage you to do so) but the only other place you can talk about your company or the services you offer is in the Marketplace.We do this to keep the forums free from spam and junk that clogs up most other online forums.

@Caroline Hires Just a thought, from an online marketing perspective, I googled "how to invest 100k" and didn't see any top-of-page advertisers - you might bid on that keyword (or similar), create a short landing page making the case for why investing in real estate with you is a good idea, and how to contact you to chat at the local Starbucks.

The information available is amazing, but also very overwhelming and I am not sure where to start.I'm currently in some credit card and student loan debt and looking for advice on whether it's smarter to get more in debt to be able to start with flipping/house hacking sooner, or to continue to read for the year and a half to two years or more it will take me to get rid of my debt and save enough for a down payment.