Assume you have cash currently earning 4.6% in high yield savings.

And personally I put way more weight on buying the right location as a buy and hold investor than saving some dollars on the front end. 

Then compare that to what you’d net by listing it as-is—factoring in the time you save and the carrying costs you avoid by not renovating.It might seem straightforward, but once you dive into the numbers, the difference between renovating versus selling as-is can be surprising.

@Greg StrunakA good real estate accountant can save you thousands of dollars by leveraging entity selection and formation, tax deductions, cost segregations, bonus depreciation and tax planning.I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation, business taxation, financial planning and tax planning.You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year.

But, someone who has saved their first $25K on the road to becoming a millionaire ensures they go nowhere fast by attempting to allocate $2.5K across ten different investments.

Based on the info you provided, it seems like a no brainer to make it a rental.

Here’s a BP blog for more info on this - 9 Vital Questions to Ask When Vetting Your Real Estate Investing TeamTenant SegmentNo property ever paid rent.

By that time, hopefully you have saved up around 20%-30% for a down payment since you do not currently have any income and will be able to qualify for a DSCR or FIXNFLIP loan. 

@Kris Lou Be careful with agents as 95%+ of them really only know how to handle owner-occupied transactions.We don't do biz in Indianapolis, so this is unbiased info we hope you find useful:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Even something as simple as utilizing ChatGPT to speed up certain processes such as asking for generalized information on a market's demographics and immigration patterns can be useful and save a lot of time.