Seattle rehab options with $500k capital. Looking for input.

[Jon Ostojic]

I'm considering transitioning to full time flipping/investing, starting with about $500k of capital in Seattle. I'm looking for feedback and input as to possible approaches. As a quick background I'm a mechanical engineer, grew up in construction (dad is a contractor). I'm always building things for fun and consider myself a craftsman whether it's restoring a car, woodworking, etc. I currently own my primary residence and two rentals and am considering liquidating for starting capital. I really would love to do this full time and be in control of my time and destiny. 

I bought my Seattle home (for $350k) as a near tear-down two years ago and spent the last 2 years worth of evenings and weekends doing a total renovation: new electrical, HVAC, windows, paint, refinished floors, landscaping, full fence, automated gate, and finished out the basement. The kitchen and bathrooms were down to the studs. I did all of the work with a shout out to my dad, who provided lots of help. The house is worth about $700k now. We put in about $65k of materials.

Here is a before and after of my kitchen for example, which I did for $13k (all appliances and even the cabinets were off of Craigslist, the concrete countertops I made myself):

I'm trying to figure out for sanity's sake how to not live in a construction zone with my wife and toddler. 

One approach I've thought about is buying a 4plex that needs cosmetic rehab and then moving into a unit while fixing another up. Then moving from unit to unit and rehabbing while always renting out at least 2 of the units. If I took a year or two to do this full time, I'd want no less than $150k in savings to live off of. That leaves me about $350k for a down payment and rehab costs. If it's cosmetic I believe a $25k per unit budget is something I could really stretch. That would leave $250k for a downpayment and closing costs, which sadly is hard in the Seattle area. The other thing I'm not sure how to estimate of is what I could sell it all for in a year or two. I feel like I could get a good post rehab estimate on a SFH, but not sure about a 4plex.

Thoughts? Opinions? Am I crazy?

[Ike Hobbs]

Are you looking to flip or looking to hold? Those are 2 different strategies that can be run together but usually I've found that most successful investors choose one or the other to focus on. Buying multifamily such as a 4plex usually results in a hold. If you have $500k in capital or leverage then you might look at getting a line of credit on your current properties and using that money with a hard money loan to purchase your next flip or hold and go from there. Look up the BRRR strategy especially.