Live in Flip or Rental Property

[Lance Middleton]

Hello everybody, Been on the RE learning train for about a year now and I'm excited to get started with it. Here is the situation: I recently graduated as a mechanical engineer and got a good job in Huntsville AL. My entire family is in Texas so I definitely plan on moving back down there in a couple of years so I'm a little torn on how should alter my real estate investing strategy. Ideally, buy-and-hold rentals makes the most sense to me but I'd like to avoid buying long term properties in Alabama knowing I won't be here long. Long distance investing scares me. I know there is no right answer here but I'd like some feedback on whether I should try and get my feet wet with a live-in-flip(this might be a worse idea than buying a rental property) or just keep saving cash to safely increase my liquidity for a buy-and-hold strategy when I settle in Texas. In any case I KNOW I won't be in Alabama for more than three years, possibly as little as 1.5 years. My initial thought is to just save save save but I think it would also be good to jump in with something even if it doesn't align with my precise buy-and-hold rental goals. Any feedback appreciated! Lance