I like the strategy of having a job with guaranteed income and taking advantage of owner occupied financing to purchase a house hack, staying connected with the REI community in the area, and scaling up from there.

Housing in Washington. 

The biggest things for our energy bills are: how many ac units are on the house and do you have a hot tub.

We are working on our first flip house and we didn't plan to do the BRRRR method, although it has come up in conversation multiple times due to the area it is in, we are still tossing the idea around of keeping it as a rental.

I'm thinking about investing into section 8  housing in STL and I'm new to this game.

Hello,I purchased James Dainard’s new book The House Flipping Framework on Audible.

However, they approach financial health from different angles.The 50% Rule is a quick estimate that suggests operating expenses (excluding mortgage principal and interest) will roughly equal 50% of the property's gross income.The DSCR is a more precise calculation (Net Operating Income / Total Debt Service) that determines if a property generates enough income to cover its debt obligations.Deal example:- Class C middle class neighborhood- 4bd / 2ba single family house- ARV: 190k- Purchase: 105k- Rehab: 35k- Market rent: $1,400-1,525- Section 8: $1,475- Property manager: 10%- Taxes: 125 month- Insurance $1250 yr- HOA: $55 month- purchased and rehabbed with all cash.

A chimney on the property completely collapsed—taking part of the roof with it and crashing through the neighbor’s house.

The stone elevation can be expensive but will really move a house quickly with the added curb appeal.Some things I like to add for not much extra cost..

I love that you have specific goals for 2025 - I believe if we think it, write it, say it, and share it our goals are 10x more likely to come to fruition.Are you able to do option 2 and just house hack a 2-4 unit building and use a renovation loan which allows you to put down 3.5-5%I highly suggest getting to some local chicago meetup groups (we have an in person one on the 17th)...here is BPs list: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I also have a full list of the chicago meetups that I can share with you too if that'd be helpful.