We plan to refinance once the renovation is complete and rent it out for a few years at roughly neutral cash flow.

That is why I think today's MFH buyer paying 50% downpaymebt just to cash neutral is crazy....I see lot of them going into bankcrupcy with the next recession

@ Matt katsaris - A class property in OOS, often times, don't cash flow much if any.... that is true for most all metro cities.... you have to go deep into the "hood" to cash flow.Here in Bay Area, you can't even cash neutral...

My preference is to find a property that has positive cash flow now; or at least neutral,  but could be open to an appreciation play once I have a better understanding of how the market works.   

If you haven't already done so, run the numbers on your current home and see what it would look like as a rental, sometimes starter homes make decent cash-neutral equity opportunities that you can then sell within 3 years of putting into service tax-free.

I use them all the time on heavy smoke and pet smell houses and it works great in neutralizing the odors. 

And if things are wrong here, you just kill the deal.It's hard for all 4 of them to lie to me at the same time; however, 3 of the 4 people that I listed are also incentivized for me to buy the property so maybe next time I should have more neutral parties telling me about what is wrong with the house.But for large MFH deals where your downside if you screw up is enormous, I'd fly out.

I don't want to move away from something that cash flow positive into something that is cash flow neutral. 

Or if they will go to more "nature neutral" states like Ohio and Illinois.

I agree that if PITIH is $1032 and rent is $1250 then you will be cash flow neutral at best over the next 5 years.