@Jonathan LudizacaFrom a lender's perspective, starting in 1-4 units gives you experience and many more lenders will be open to first time flippers in this space versus multifamily. 

They know when they did something versus it already being there when moved in. 

There is no such absolute rule or mandate for REI - it is up to you on your comfort level with your cash flow versus total investment versus appreciation potential.If I followed that rule, I would have missed out on a LOT of great opportunities over the years.We bought a house in Jones Valley in 2017 with negative cash flow - why? 

I appreciate the reminder as well that if the gain is fairly low then it may make more sense to just pay the capital gains taxes now versus 1031 exchange. 

What are current loan terms today versus 2 months from now versus in 2 yrs?  

This gives much better diversification protection across geographies, asset types, strategies, investment subclasses etc. versus putting all the eggs into one basket.The downside is that it's not for everyone, and a person has to be comfortable with turning over control to someone else.

You have to weigh the benefit of the insurance claim payment versus potentially having your carrier cancel you and perhaps get black-balled by the insurance industry.

Or we gradually perform high-quality updates for a live-in flip, then roll the equity into a new home.Regarding rental income, we aim to boost income, lower our effective tax rate by generating more low tax-drag income with rental income (since there’s not much we can do to lower out W2 tax bills) and have retirement cash flow.To compare the financial impact over 10-20 years, we want to analyze renting versus flipping.

Quote from @Karen Smith: With more investors turning to private money lenders for faster funding, what benefits have you seen from using private financing versus traditional bank loans? 

No one can answer that because we don't know what market you are in and what your list price is versus the actual value, as well as the scale of the town.When something hasn't sold in 50 days, it's overpriced.