First dive into real estate investing.

[Florencio Nayve]

Hello everyone! I'm a newbie in REI. My friend is selling her house to me because she's downsizing and moving to a small condo. Her house is in a very good location. Hopefully, she will give me a good price since we're friends, and it's an old house which needs a new roof, remodel of both 1 1/2 bathroom, and general clean-up/junk removal. I'm thinking of doing either a fix and flip or buy, fix, and hold for a long term rental property. I could either use a HELOC or a self-directed IRA for down payment.

My three questions:

1) With the mortgage rates so high right now, is it better to do a fix and flip or buy, fix, and hold for a long term rental?

2) Is it better to use a HELOC or a SDIRA as down payment in both cases?

3) If I use a SDIRA as down payment, is taking a non-recourse loan the only option with it, or are there any other available type of loans that goes with it?

Thank you very much for your help!