If anyone has tips or things to watch out for, please provide.  

If you start trying to sell a home that has to be removed- you are now in a very different situation that very few guides, tax assessments or insurers will be able to provide insight. 

Flipping requires you to continue to do deals to make money while renting provides a steady income.

These options are usually much more expensive, also, and very few private/hard money lenders will provide take-out financing.

The most common strategy is to use the existing equity to put into another downpayment and buy another property - this provides an effective use of leverage as you are expanding your portfolio.

Focus on performing your day to day operations in a manner that will reduce the risk of claims in the first places such as hiring reputable service providers, sign contracts each time you engage a 3rd party vendor & collect insurance certificates where you are listed as additional insured from everyone who performs work on a property you own or provides a service related to a property you own.

Any help that you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

You need a specialty provider firm specializing in these types of account to set up IRS-compliant plan for you.Solo 401k plan is not for everyone, you must be eligible in order to establish one.

With all of this, get really specific about what you are wanting to provide in terms of a resource.

After being laid off for the 2nd time in 5 years, I started looking at ways to stop relying on a W2 to provide for my financial future.