Should I buy or rent a home if I plan on moving soon?

[Conner Snodgrass]

Greetings BP,

I am finally ready to buy a property but I have the following dilemma.

My GF will be graduating college in May and we will need a place to live in Charleston. This seems like the perfect opportunity to  "house hack" a small multifamily.

The available MLS properties in my target area will sometimes meet the 1% rule (never 2% as I am sure most people face), but most are older homes that will require a good bit of rehab.

The kicker here is that we will be relocating to Charlotte, NC in about a year and a half (Q4 2017). My concern with this is that I will have all my capital tied up in a property that is now 4 hours away when I will also need capital to buy a new place in Charlotte.

So my question is, what would you guys advise me to do? Should I be patient and wait for a great deal to come along that meets my criteria? Should I change my criteria and maybe start looking for a lipstick SF live-in flip (needs to qualify for traditional mortgage). Or should I entertain the idea of renting and becoming an expert in Charlotte so I can make a good start there in 2018?

Thank you for your help!

[Lynn McGeein]

Personally, if I could find a home that I could get a mortgage on, fix it up and turn a profit when you move, that would be ideal.  If I'm not mistaken, you can still take the exemption or a large portion of it if you lived there for 1.5 years and then transferred for work a certain distance.   If there are too many fees to sell, like heavy excise taxes and seller costs, that would make it not worth it or if you cannot find a good deal, I'd just rent for the time being and save up money rather than risk being tied up in a house long distance.