House Hack vs. a Fix and Flip as a beginner. Advice and ideas to bounce off of.

[Gabriel Torion]

Noobie here. I have no properties, but I want to start my real estate endeavors with either a house hack or a fix and flip.

I'm in the Twin Cities, so my target market is North Saint Paul or the suburbs of the Twin cities.

So here are the two options that I carved out for myself:

A) Start with a fix and flip using a hard or private money lender. Then, use its profits to purchase a house hack with a FHA loan. Repeat the process every year.

B) Start with a house hack instead, using either a FHA or USDA loan. Perform a fix and flip after getting my feet wet with house hacking.

I would have about 14-15 grand saved by April next year. By then, I could pull the trigger on one of the options.

With that said, here are my questions:

1) What's the best area to invest in for a house hack or a fix and flip in the Twin Cities area? Is North St. Paul a valuable option for both?

2) I'm getting mixed opinions about this based on my research, but with the current market conditions, how much money should I save up for a fix and flip if I go with option A? Is 15,000k good enough in your experience?

3) Which options sound preferable based on my conditions?

4) This might be tangent from my post, but what primary sources do you use to understand market conditions, especially here in Minnesota?

Links to resources and reading material would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Scott Trench]

Why not do a "Live-In Flip"?

 Fix the place up, add a ton of equity, live in it for two years, take advantage of low down-payment, low-interest government insured financing, do the work on the nights and weekends, and harvest the gains tax free after living in your fancy new place for two years? 

@Mindy Jensen has done about 15 of these and created millions in wealth.