He does a lot of BRRRR, flip, and hold between Pittsburgh and West Virginia and will surely know the Pittsburgh markets you are considering.

That sounds like an ideal situation versus doing a full fix and flip for your first deal. 

I’m new to house flipping but have extensive experience as the owner of a successful property damage restoration company.

Do you want to fix/flip or do you want to buy/hold?

Someone might bail on a HML secured by a vacant flip gone south, but they are less likely to bail when it's the home the investor's kids sleep in at night. 

@Madelyn Felix we used to use ShowingHero, but moved on from them to ShowMojo, due to ShowMojo offering keypads in addition to lockboxes.We've pretty much flipped to keypads as too many keys go missing from lockboxes or get locked inside the home.While ShowMojo offers a service for tenants to use their keypads after movein, we remove the keypads when a home is rented and transfer to next vacant property.PRO TIP: only use keyed deadbolts for occupied rentals! 

I have been an investor for well over a decade and working with other investors buying and selling flips and rentals for nearly as long here in the Dallas/Ft.

Hi Ian,I have plenty of investors who flip or rent in Sherman/Denison it is a great spot that will continue to grow as DFW grows north with the likes of Prosper/Celina.

(Noticed I didn't include architects in that list - from my experience most architects are great at building design but shouldn't try to do land planning.)If you have never done any development like this before than it would make sense to partner with someone who has (or flip it entirely) once you have a site plan of the property's potential.

I'd encourage using it to fund a fix and flip or BRRRR.