If you get out on nice Saturday and Sunday afternoons you'll hit open houses and be able to do some looking without having an agent involved.

It hit me one day - if I'm in a position where I NEED to use precious metals as a "currency" then what I'm going to be using it for that I desperately need is food.

Mitigation plan - What happens if you get hit by a beer truck?

Gutted it to the studs and redid everything including the missing electrical and plumbing.

If you are satisfied earning 8% compomuded over the next 30 years(hopefully you have that much time to leave your money alone) then invest in equities and hopefully when it comes time that you need to pull some of your gains to supplement your income you dont hit a 2008 becuase then your 8% turns into about 5-6%(great advice). stick with what I'm saying and you will be fine Fertile. invest in yourself, educate yourself in what you are interested in. and hopefully what your interested in, you can control such as real estate, your own business,selling shares of your own company or your own offering, etc. you are an outsider looking in if you throw your 500 bucks into a fortune 500 company and by no means do you have any control whatsoever.

Electric?

I feel that the real estate investment market has already hit bottom, and will stay there for the next 12 months or so.

Electrical box needs updating and needs some wiring.

I also need a termite inspection, electrical inspection,

The rules that govern qualified plans such as 401(k)s and profit sharing plans allow much more flexibility in your investment options, the ability to borrow, mortgage the properties in the plan with out getting hit with UBTI.I have set up a couple of thousand 401(a)s over the years for my client's corporations and LLC and many of them actively invest in real estate in their plans.