If you had 20 or 40,000

I have a friend who's coming into some money. He is interested in doing some Bitcoin mining. He's looking to put anywhere from 20 to $40,000 into it. Is he better using a hosting company or mining it himself? Cost of electric is 11 cents kilowatt hour.

What do you think the return would be for hosting versus pool mining?

Anyone doing something similar? What miner would you buy and how many?