Rent or Flip? Beginner seeking advice

[Vanessa Roca]

Hello! I'm a new real estate investor in the Northern Virginia area and looking to learn as much as I can here on BiggerPockets.

I'm personally really intrigued with house flipping, but hesitant to jump in due to my lack of experience and the current market here as the house prices are high. Because of this, I've been thinking to start with long term rental investments, but would appreciate some advice! As well as financing strategies that require less upfront cash!

[Joaquin Camarasa]

@Vanessa Roca honestly if you do not have much cash, your best bet would be to househack and use a low downpayment loan FHA or conventional. If you want to get a rental property, you would need to put 20% down and it is really hard to make it cashflow renting only to one family, almost impossible I would say. The numbers are really hard to work with in our area unfortunately.

Multifamilies are scarce in the area. So the typical house hacks here are renting by the room. Strategies commonly used in the area are houses with basements or townhomes with several levels.

If you are low in cash then I would not even recommend flipping. Requires a tremendous amount of cash and you need the experience because there is a lot to manage with contractors, permits, etc. Most likely there will be setbacks on the first properties you flip, it is not as easy as it is looks and even less how they portray it in reality TV.

Sorry if it is not the most optimistic response but it is just the reality I see in the area.