However, I have relationships with people who can do the work better and I am more analytical and geared towards the business side.

As Arn mentioned about what people offer, first rule of investing is do not even look at the projected returns first.

People from all over the world invest in Ohio real estate.

I'm not sure about Houston but make sure you find a great agent who's focused in your area. call agents who list new construction or who closed land purchases and represented people. on my closed transaction list and active listings it's land on the buy side and new construction homes on the sell side. make a spreadsheet, email and call every single one, have 10-15 conversations, meet with 3, pick 1. sales funnel. 

Thanks to plenty of smart people here on BiggerPockets, I have learned that it may be possible to offset a portion of this unexpected higher W-2 income with the purchase and "active management" of a STR. 

Shana - first place to start is having the conversations with people you know in the real estate business and see what advice they have to offer.

But yeah wow, then people don't really have to get active income from flipping business or something like that if I do cash out refi well. 70k is when coming from my pocket. 

The one I used had all of these, I'm just the type that will build and install my own cabinets (I enjoy it) and the $1500 savings of doing so is too tempting... 

How can I get an FHA Loan for an auctioned home when FHA Loan requires an inspector to come check out the building and auctioned homes generally don't allow for people to inspect the house until after purchase? 

Thanks for posting this topic, I really enjoyed the responses.