I'm looking to buy a small multifamily unit (duplex on up) outside of the Dallas area.

In all likely-hood you will loseYou can also take minimal risk and get very small returns like a CD paying 2%.The key is to find the sweet spot in the middle of those two with enough diversification to protect you from one bad decision.But back to your original question.

I have a small child and am a single parent.

As an example, Krum right now is a very small community, mostly working class but good people and the price points are still reasonable.

If you have an older machine I would replace it with an High Efficiency machine and if it is a small apartment it should be a small machine.

I have a small list of buyers, but I currently don't have properties.

And I have my own small business unrelated to real estate and have another file for that in Quickbooks.

Most cities that were built after the 70s tend to have very little if any small multifamily inventory at least in my area

I believe we are ready to make some serious efforts to realize our path to financial freedom.So now here we sit with a small, but useable amount of capital and the will to invest, but a little lost.

However I kept the units small and included them in the ammenities of the units as an additional selling feature.