Seeking advice: Rental property as a temporary primary

[Brian O'Neill]

Totally new, wanting to get started in real estate investing.  

Here is the scenario: Currently in the process of leaving CA.  We're building a house outside Wilmington, NC, but it likely will not be ready in time for us to move in July/Aug. So we'll need a home during the gap - unknown amount of time but hopefully not more than a few months. 

Here are a couple scenarios I can imagine:

1. Short term renting (monthly)
2. Air BNB
3. Hotel/extended stay
4. Purchase a small-ish property, then hold onto it as a rental when we are able to move into our primary.

Obviously options 1-3 involve loss of rental money, no equity built. We'd love to be able to do option 4, and here are some scenarios I can imagine related to that:

Context: we'll probably have around $485,000 cash after the sale of our house here, minus moving expenses (a lot! apparently) and maybe pay off our van

4a. Pay for small-ish house cash, live in it, then get a mortgage for our primary when it's time to move. After we move out, we rent it out (long-term rental).
4b. Pay for small-ish house cash, live in it, then get a mortgage for it when we move out, hopefully pull out enough that we can pay our primary cash (the bill will be $430k-ish) After we move out, we rent it out (long-term rental)
4c. Get a mortgage for small-ish house, live in it, hopefully saving out enough that we can pay for primary cash when it's time. After we move out, we rent it out (long-term rental)

I know a LOT more research needs to go into these to actually say whether they are viable or not (market and deal analysis), but I'm hoping for some guidance as to whether there are red flags or green lights in principle with any of these three scenarios (4a-c).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

-Brian

[Nicholas L.]

@Brian O'Neill this is a very personal decision, and I wish you luck!  Here are a couple of questions and thoughts:

-Do you know the Wilmington market well enough, or can you go there in person enough times in the next few months, so that if you pick any of your option 4 scenarios, you could be confident that you were buying a solid rental?  I think this is key... if you can't buy a solid rental, there is no reason to pick option 4.  Do you have a realtor and team in Wilmington already?

-I can't tell whether you need the cash from the potential rental to pay the balance on your primary.  I think you're saying you could take out a mortgage on the primary.  I wouldn't do anything on the potential rental that could impact your primary.

-The only reason to buy the potential rental in cash would be if you thought you could fix it up and boost the value - you could then refinance out based on the ARV. Otherwise, as long as buying with a mortgage isn't going to affect your DTI / other plans, this is better because it doesn't tie up all of your cash.

Hope this helps.  Also, FWIW, I don't think you "lose" money on options 1-3.  Buying involves "losing" money too... fees to the lender, closing costs, appraisals, interest on mortgages, etc. that don't contribute to equity.  Short term renting is a fabulous deal - no closing or financing costs!