Flip or Rent Out our first investment property?

[Kelly Bellini]

Hoping for some opinions/advice:  My husband and I bought our first investment property with the intent to flip it.  We knew off the bat that we wouldn't make a ton of money off of it, but we wanted to use it as a learning experience, to get our feet wet.  As for the numbers: We paid cash, $89,000.  We're on track to spend about $13,000 fixing it up (most of the work has been done ourselves).  We should be able to sell it for $125-135K.

As I said, our plan was to flip it, BUT after listening to a ton of BP podcasts, I've been getting really excited about the idea of rental properties, as an investment in our future.  So, now we're wondering if we would be better off using this property as a rental instead.  We would likely be able to get $1200/month for it.  We did pay cash, though, and I don't want that money tied up, so I'd need to get a loan on it (I've read a bit about that, and I know it's possible, but I'm not sure of the logistics.).

Any advice is greatly welcome!!!