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

[Tim White]

Hello @Lance Middleton, I am computer engineer here in Huntsville and moon light as a real estate investor.  My family currently lives in Texas and when I first got here I thought that would only be here two -three years so that I could finish my masters.  Well I finished my Master's five years ago and I am still in Huntsville.  The place could easily make you comfortable with the low cost of living and decent salaries.

To that end, I still bought a house within the first year of me living here because I hated the idea of paying money for rent when I would never get any returns on it.  Plus, I HATE living in apartments.  Anyways, when shopping for a property I made sure that I could find something that I could sell in hurry without losing my shirt.  To do this I looked for SFRs that other people would like.  I eventually found a foreclosure with close proximity to Research Park.  I then started "house hacking" one of the rooms on AirBNB and that was enough to pay most of my mortgage.  In the end the decision is up to you, however just know that I have been in your shoes before.