If I get the situation correctly, youre wanting to exit retirement and pull cash out of your home to use to flip a property in FL to generate income to live off of.

But these two live and work it and dont sell e ducation.

I live and invest in Milwaukee since 2007, so probably a little bias here, but we are set up very well for future growth. 

If you’re just starting or want to minimize risk, house hacking is a killer move—grab a duplex, live in one unit, rent the other, and let it pay down your mortgage while you scale up.

Note - if you live in your property for 2 years out of the last 5, then you don’t pay taxes on the profit. 

I live in Raleigh and can tell you that the 40% was not all apple. 

Convince yourself that there's a better than average chance that you will lose, and if you can live with the time, energy and money spent if you do. 

After 4-5-6 years then maybe roll them up into a small mulitfamily.Another option if you have the credit and some capital is to buy a 4 unit as owner/occupied and live in one and rent the other 3. 

Buy in an area you want to live and renting to the people you want to rent to.

I wasn’t prepared to lose so much of my savings as carrying cost basically I paid for the tenants to live there for 3 months + my own living expenses in that time.