Well I basically have about 2 payments left. $150k (now) and $175 next year.

I really want to invest it and make it last. I definitely want to have a retail business. Maybe a grocery store or something for security.

But I really need advice on going about buying and selling a house.
What about foreclosures?

.. Anybody??

I am suprised no one answered. Start checking out some of the real esate investor sites and perpare to read, and read , and read.

As someone who has sold businesses I only sell the ones that that include the real estate, but the facts are most are not selling security, they are selling a job, then when you want to give it up you need to find another sucker to take your place. A successful business is seldom for sale and someone has offered to buy it directly.

Yeah I never saw this post for some reason.If you want to invest Georgia is a great place.

I think you know or have learned that capital is very hard to accumulate, and you have a golden opportunity there with your capital. It is a small amount of money if you are buying in NYC, but a huge amount if you are in Buffalo. Do you need that money to create current income? If so, you need to create a cash cow, like the grocery store or other franchise. As for buying real estate, it has been a traditional place for long term steady income generation after generation for the right property - commercial, triple net lease, or ground lease for decades triple net. Recently, the flip transaction has produced current income and is fast and exciting, but if you do not know pitfalls and errors, you can get hurt irreparably. First rule: put up money that you can emotionally and financially afford to lose. If you put up all your money on one deal, and the loss of it all will devastate you, do not go forward. If you had 20 deals with exposure of 10,000 each, you would be very happy if 15 worked well, but 5 lost all. I wrestle with this as well. I am buying 30 properties in Detroit (don't laugh) for $16,000 at tax auction. Yes, $500 each. I am spending another 10K on debris removal, and am going to sell using a thing called a land contract, and I have to sell 5 of the properties to be profitable. Long story as to how I know what I know, but the point is that if I lose on all, I lose 25K. I can handle that. If I sell 5 I make a modest profit, stream of income. If I sell 25, I get a stream of income for 25 years. In your case, you make your determination as to how much per investment is right for you, starting with how you feel about the investment and whether the fear of losing will cripple your decision making process. Good luck to you.

After you spend $150 on a retail store, you're out of money to buy stock and pay insurance, etc.

Commercial rentals are in the tank right now so I would recommend that you lease until you get your business up and running and are able to leverage that into a loan for a space of your own later on. Be aggressive in your lease negotiation, they're just happy to find someone - anyone - to rent their space and sign a 1-year lease so if they get foreclosed on, you'll still have your space.

Use your $ to develop a business plan, pay for your business licenses, fees, advertising and inventory. And then go get a loan and used leveraged money, not your own, to invest in your future plans.

Looks like you've really sketched some broad strokes. If you're wanting to focus on commercial real estate that is a bit different from residential. Just as buying residential real estate for the purposes of immediate resale is different from buying for the purpose long term rental income. It seems to me that if you're wanting to receive long term income with $325K to invest you may want to look into buying distressed single family homes for cash and renting them, or possibly even apartments/condos - or even a small multi-unit property. Good luck.