You clearly found an excellent niche for yourself, hoping to do something similar myself.  

Excellent points about checking the different documents and thinking of a Plan B (just in case).

That said, Texas tends to offer more affordable housing than Florida’s coastal towns, so your money might go further if you’re buying properties for yourself and your portfolio.When it comes to family life, Texas has tons of family-friendly suburbs with excellent schools.

After a bit more research, I actually think renting a place will get me started faster and earn some experience doing Airbnb with a little less risk involved.Obviously I still need to be concerned about not violating a lease agreement by doing so and I would likely live on the property and lot or all the time.Ownership is still the ultimate goal, but this looks a faster party to self driven income.

Make the most of the excellent tools available on this platform.

I prefer building my own spreadsheet on Excel and fine-tuning the specific expenses myself.

@Emily ShinHouse hacking a multi-family property is an excellent way to start investing in real estate, especially in a market like Columbus, Ohio, which offers affordability and growth potential.

These are what we call "A-class" markets—areas with strong fundamentals, high demand, and typically excellent long-term appreciation.

I'm not sure I can copy and paste my Excel spreadsheet, so i will approximate the numbers here.Strategy:Take a Home Equity Loan (second) on our primary @ 5%.Pay off existing HELOC (variable, at 7.5% now), use remainder ($120k) to buy the land (plus 30k of our own cash).

This provides an excellent opportunity to purchase properties, make light renovations to increase both rental income and property value, and optimize cash flow.