Excited to start REI!

[Scott Fair]

I am a long-time Michigander and am completely new to REI but have been fervent about research and am super excited about the upcoming possibilities in REI. I currently own a house in Eastpointe, Michigan and will be moving to the Lansing, Michigan area in a couple of months.

My end goal is to own multiple properties via the buy/hold technique. My wife and I have been debating about whether to sell our current house and use the money as downpayment for another house in a better neighborhood in Lansing and begin the investing snowball or to just rent out this house and receive positive cash flow and use this money for more investments in the very near future. It should be noted that we currently own the house in Eastpointe and have no mortgage on it, so after the 50% rule we could pull in a pretty decent cash flow. Wondering if anyone has advice (with a buy/hold mindset) about which option they would choose if they were in my situation? Also, we will be somewhat stable this year as far as income goes and will be even more stable as soon as I get into residency next July (steady paycheck).

I have already done much research but I still have so much more to do, and I also know that time will be on my time as far as education in real estate goes. This site is incredible and I believe the possibilities it creates for us newbies as potential investors are endless. Many thanks for this!

Scott