Large Sum of Money; Real Estate Trends; Sit-out or Jump-in?

[Brandon S.]

Hey there - first discussion post here.  Thanks in advance for any feedback.  Recently came into a large chunk of money from family estate -- approx. 800K liquid and ready for investing. Only my wife knows of these funds; none of my friends or colleagues are aware; I'm hesitant to even post this to a forum. (This may not be a lot of money for the seasoned investors, but it is for me).  I have a primary residence with 350K equity. I've determined my investing will be in buy-and-hold rentals,with >50% down.  My goal is to essentially build an annuity and slowly piece together a portfolio with stable cashflow.  

I've listened to all the BP podcasts and read nearly all the recommended RE books, so please don't recommend a book or podcast. I'm wondering about the collective sentiment on market trends, housing appreciation, and strategy.

If you were in my position, and wanted to invest solely in rentals, would you sit-out the market for a few years or jump-in?  Would you trickle in (buy a few rentals) or would you buy a large mutli-family?  Again, thanks for the feedback.   

[Joel Owens]

TAKE YOUR TIME.

Money is hard to accumulate but easy to lose.

Diversifying for the sake of diversifying doesn't make sense. That's what financial planners tell people making investments that know little to nothing about what they are investing in.

The premise is they think stick a little bit of something in everything and they can't all fail at once etc.

You can buy all of it wrong and lose your shirt just as fast diversifying. People that are experts in their field stick to what they know over,and over, and over again but they are functioning at a higher level than most investors. They tend to make money no matter what the cycle is in that asset class.

Maybe you buy something all cash with a value add component to it. That way at least if real estate isn't your thing you might at least make some upside profit for your troubles.

SFR houses are really at the top in many markets. I wouldn't be saddling myself with inflated debt on these houses close to the peak to generate low cash flow.

Don't let anyone hard sell you or pressure you to ACT FAST with anything. Run very fast from those people.