How much cash on hand before we go full-time?

[Wendy Owens]

My husband and I recently relocated to Portland Oregon for a contract our tech company won. We moved from Cincinnati where we flipped 3 properties on the side and we made about $30k on average after expenses on each property. The buy in here in Portland is so much higher our long term goal is to return to Cincinnati and start a full time flipping and rental business. We have never been landlords but feel like it's the right move for retirement investing.

Here is my question... Our tech company is doing very well but it's just not where our passion is. We know we want to be doing real estate full time. We need $120k in personal living expenses a year in Ohio for our family. Our goal is to flip 6 homes or more a year to achieve that salary. We also want to invest in rentals by purchasing the first 5 in cash and when they are seasoned we pull the money and purchase 5 more. We are trying to figure out when do we have enough cash to make the leap and exit our tech business. We were thinking the following but wanted to get opinions of seasoned experts.

1 year salary reserves: $120k

Cash on hand to flip 2 properties at a time (goal being 6 total for year) 

$115k buy in on property and 35k in renovations = $150k x 2 = 300k

Pay cash for 3 rentals to start with $70k per rental, 15k to fix up rental = 85k x 3 = 255k

(after rentals season for 6 months pull cash out to purchase 2-3 more)

Total cash needed to start full time: $675k

Based on the timeline we hoped for we will be closer to 400k and were trying to figure out if we would be okay to take the leap or wait it out until we actually meet our numbers. I'd love to hear some opinions. Thanks so much!