New Investor in St. Louis

[Lane Forhetz]

Hello All!

My name is Lane and I am embarking on my real estate career journey. I have been learning about the business and meeting people over the past year, but have recently been working with an agent toward a home in Maryland Heights. I have learned a lot so far from the BP community and I want to thank everyone for their gracious insight and knowledge imparted. I'm actually embarrassed it's taken me so long to create an account and post.

I do have a question for those in St. Louis. I am work full time as an engineer and I have about $65k in cash ready to invest in real estate, not including a 6 month safety net. Regarding this, I am split on how to invest the best moving forward. My idea is to break ground into this business with a fairly safe flip, then look for a turnkey (or low budget renovation) rental this year. My dilemma is, once I do this my debt to income ratio keeps me from getting another loan until I can prove a year's worth of rent income to my lender. I'm not keen on putting things on hold for that long. Are there other options? I know hard money lenders are an option, but I'm not sure if that is the best option for me.

Also, it seems the St. Louis market is not great for renting compared to the national average of cash-on-cash returns. From my experience running numbers and seeing other people's experiences, it seems like $250/month after all expenses is a huge win. So I am wondering if it's even worth buying a rental in this market. However I do enjoy the aspect of monthly cash-flow versus the risk involved with possible big checks from flips every couple months.

I very much appreciate the insight anyone can provide!