Make current dining room part of the living room and remove on wall to make big eat-in kitchen. 

The house has positive cash flow and is within my comfort range albeit less than the 1% rule.

Guess we need to figure out how high we can go and still be comfortable. 

I think I now am comfortable sending my yellow letters.  

This one won't necessarily appreciate super quickly, but I got it at a price I was comfortable with where I should be walking into a good chunk of equity right away.I agree better schools can help, but that isn't totally necessary in some areas.

@Will Wu   She may also be feeling overwhelmed because she just lost her father and this is outside of her knowledge and comfort zone. 

I will then begin (with that personal capital) to purchase 2-4 unit properties (a predetermined amount each year) in order to have enough constant cash flow to feel comfortable not having a day job and pursuing "active" investing full time while my "passive" investments pull me thru the leaner months.

All of the sites I listed earlier in this thread are reputable IMO, but some are better than others and some structure their deals in ways I wouldn't be comfortable with as an investor or a promoter.  

The thing is though, since starting a business is outside his comfort zone and he would encourage that I should just be happy living a conservative life at a 9 to 5 job, it would have been a far easier business proposal for him to wrap his head around in comparison to real estate.  

Show the check to the seller when they sign the contract and tell them that it will deposited with the title company/attorney when you drop off the contract.Using an agent or attorney for the contract is completely dependent on your comfortableness with the process.