Hey there everybody! I just entered into my first investment deal! I'm excited and anxious to start my Real Estate Journey. Appreciate Bigger Pockets and the BP community for being such a generous wealth of information and am very thankful for it.

The property is a 3 bed 2 bath lake front house out in Ocala, FL 2,547 SQFT on 3/4 of an acre with the ability to possibly add another bedroom or bathroom. The purchase price was 169k and the estimated ARV is a conservative 285k with a 50k rehab (Hoping I can get more like 300k). I acquired it through a wholesaler and checked his numbers with my own and feel confident it's a good deal one way or another.

Here is where I've been going back and forth.

My ideal goal is to make it a cash flowing rental where I put in about 25k to 35k for repairs. I used a HELOC which has 212k of credit for the all cash purchase which I'll say when it's all said and done with closing costs ($3,200) will total around 174k for total acquisition of the property. That leaves me with 38k for a total rental rehab budget. If I only put 25k into the rehab I could come out with an infinite return on investment depending on what the ARV would be when I'm done, which realistically probably wouldn't be near 285k but a guy can dream. So I wouldn't be able to do a cash out refinance of 70% LTV to pay back the HELOC in full. If I just keep the property without doing a cash out refinance the HELOC is at a fixed rate of 5.5% for 30 years which I guess is ok if I'm getting enough rent to cover the HELOC Monthly payment. Would probably not be good for my credit Score though right? Also wouldn't be able to rinse and repeat to get another rental since my HELOC money would be tied into this property.

Now if the rental thing doesn't pan out and I can't find a Tennant or make it cashflow the exit Strategy would be to Flip it and get the highest ARV I can. So I would have to put in about another 25k of my own money but would get it back when I sell. Total gain if I sold it for 285k+ would be around 50-60k after paying back the HELOC.

It is a cool house and would love to keep it but just not sure how to get the HELOC cash back out of it to fund another deal later this year. I guess my only two options would be to wait a couple years for it to appreciate and hope the tenants take care of it so minimal repairs and I can get a higher ARV or flip it as soon as I can. What would you guys do?

Also if I did go for top dollar flip do you think I would get a higher ARV going with a more modern look on the interior (White with stainless steel appliances brush nickel hardware, White bathroom tile etc.) or the old lake house look with cedar? The house already has the wood/cedar look going so I Imagine it would be cheaper to do but worried the ARV would be less compared to going modern and white. You guys have any rehab theme suggestions come to mind looking at it? Attached are some pictures of the property and some random examples of the modern vs cedar looks.

Appreciate your thoughts and advice!

-Chris