Buy first home or invest?

[Torin Murphin]

I'm hoping to pick some local REIs and realtors' brains here and get some advice.

My wife and I will be inheriting about $70k over the next year from her dad. My wife *really* wants to buy our own home since we've been renting for 2 years, settle in our 2 little boys' rooms, decorate, the whole 9 yards.

I'm leaning toward investing it first into some possible BRRRRs and/or flips since the market is hot and establishing some more passive income/savings but since it's coming from her dad, she's nervous about investing it in real estate rather than buying our own home now.

Should we buy now and take advantage of the low rates and then save to invest later? Keep renting and invest now? Any food for thought is greatly appreciated.

Also, another topic, we like the new Cadence community in old Henderson, but even their base price SFHs are still high for us (high $200s to low $300s). How likely are new builders to come down in price or include upgrades to get people in? I know they have their quotas but I'm not sure how lenient they would be considering the market is hot.