Also, it's a bad idea to mix too completely unrelated businesses in one entity.

You have commercial to consider but you also have "Mixed use" commercial/residential mix which is really growing fast. 

Usually C/B areas is where it'll be a good mix of cash flow, appreciation and values

My last house had an alley and in my experience it was pretty mixed if people would clear their section.I don't plan to charge anything for parking. 

I'm perfectly fine dealing with risk, but wondering how much risk is appropriate to take on.I have about $50k in equity in my personal home and I always see mixed reactions about using a HELOC or Home Equity Loan for rental properties: some people saying absolutely put your equity to work so you can use 'other people's money' and keep your cash reserves, while others say absolutely not, don't put your personal home at risk of being foreclosed if the unthinkable happened.

I am brand new so I'm not necessarily giving you advice but rather regurgitating what I've learned so far from others and resources.It MIGHT have been in Jeff Leighton's The Beginner's Guide to Wholesaling Real Estate, but I could be wrong because I've been reading and listening to so much material I get it mixed up.

I find that in almost any city if you simply google the Median price of a SFR ( if thats what your looking to buy) and then buy as close to those price points as possible this will give you a healthy mix of owner occ and decent schools.its when you chase spread sheet yield into high risk  heavy lift management properties that the OOS investor takes on Risk they simply are not aware of.. the old you dont know what you dont know comes into play.

Thanks for your help in advance.  I have an off market opportunity for a 7 property (9 door) portfolio with a wide range of property values.  It runs from a duplex at $165k down to a SFH at $65k.  The seller is lookin...

This could come from a mix of additional capital contributed by me and also a construction loan.

After many years, myself and two family members (yes I know, mixing family and business gets dicey) have pooled together enough cash to really start investing with a focus on buying land and developing single family homes.