Buying a place for myself. REI advantages?

[Michael L.]

How would RE investor usually go about buying a place for himself? Or an advice for my plan forward.

I'm a buy and hold investor, but eventually looking to get into flipping and new development. I currently rent an apartment and I get a lease incentive from my company for about 50% of the rent, but due to the family expansion I will be needing more space soon.

For simplicity, if there is 100K that can be allocated for this, what do you think is the best option here:

1. Get a 250-300k~ range house with 20% down payment. That way there is a nice, long term place. Money are leveraged. Everything is simple and straight forward, but no returns and still high monthly payments in the range of $1600 due to high TX taxes. It even exceeds my current rent.

2. Find a smaller 60-80k house suitable for flipping, rehab it and move in there. After moved in - get it refinanced, take the money out and start a new flip. Meanwhile put the first house on sale. If it does sell by the time second house is finished - move in to the second, or if not, then keep both on sale until one is sold and everything repeats again. I'd definitely want to try this option if I was single. Have anybody tried it?

3. Find a bigger apartment for lease, enjoy company incentives and do flips on the side with the money that I didn't purchase a house on? I think the rent will be around $1600 for the size of place I need, but it provides a nice option to invest money and not to move every so often.

4. New development or any other creative options? What other advantages being an REI can one have compare to general population when buying a place for himself?

Could you please share your thoughts on the best plan forward? 

Thanks!