Advice on which route to take.

[Derek Mihlfeith]

Hello all,

First time investor here looking for some advice from the pros.  Please correct me if this is the wrong forum to post.

My wife and I are in a position to invest in our first investment property. We're likely going to be using the BRRR method, with some possible short-term renting mixed in with this second property (pardon if my vernacular isn't correct).

We have a couple of options available to us, but can't quite decide on the best route.  

Option 1: - Finish our basement and convert it to a rental unit,  which based on comps, we believe we could get close to $1800/month.  This is enough to cover our mortgage on the note of the total house.  The caveat here is that it would require about $40-$50k capital, which would lower our purchasing power on the second property. This would likely take 3-4 months to finish, and likely another few weeks to find a renter. Our primary residence for the time being would be the upstairs portion of this house.

Option 2: - Purchase the second property, preferably a 2 unit rental. One unit would be a short term rental, so that we could use it when we want, and the other unit a a mid to long term rental. If we went this route, we could live here, and turn our original house into a 2 unit rental house. The problem is that we likely wouldn't have the capital to finish the basement on anytime soon on the original property if we went this route.  Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers on the potential second property yet, as we're still looking, and deciding the best route to take.

Any guidance, pointers, opinions, clarifying questions or things I might be missing are greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks!