What would you do with $150,000 cash?

[Stephanie Douglass]

I will have $150,000 cash this summer from the sale of a single family rental that I bought five years ago and lived in for two years. I’m curious: what would you do? What market would you invest in? Would you buy a couple different properties, use it to start BRRRing properties, or buy a multi family? 25% down on something? I live in Austin, but I’m open to investing in better markets. I just bought a duplex in San Antonio with partners. Midwest? Thanks for your input! Stephanie

[David Schulwitz]

Stephanie - great question.  I think it's important to start with the fact that there really isn't a "right" answer here.  It's going to have to line up with what you're comfortable with and what your priorities are.  I suppose that's what makes real estate investing beautiful and complicated at the same time.  

My initial gut reaction is that I would take the 150,000 to make nine $15,000 down payments (20%) on $75,000 single family homes in places like Memphis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Ohio, etc etc).  This is probably too much of an exaggeration on my part, because I'm assuming you only have that San Antonio duplex towards your 10 mortgages count, giving you 9 more that you could acquire before being at your Fannie/Freddie max.  Also - the bank may way more than 15k leftover in emergency funds - not sure what you already have in liquid assets.  Anyways - buying nine $75k properties that are yielding around 13-14% in 2 star neighborhoods would be pretty awesome in my mind.  

I also really love the BRRRR idea though - I guess it depends how much time you have to put into real estate. BRRRR'ing will require a lot more personal time than just buying something that's fairly turn-key and waiting for the mailbox money...

Good luck!

Dave