Stock market returns have been good and I don’t have the headaches of dealing with any additional houses or guests.

Funny you mentioned a $600K house doesn’t pencil out as a rental.

Connect with other investors, agents, and property managers to get a feel for the area and learn from their experiences.Are you thinking about house hacking or just straight-up rentals for now?

Preferably stay for one year and find another house.

Just bought 3 houses last week from a builder. 

You could also consider an open house showing. 2-3 hours on a weekend may allow a number of the people who have called and are interested in the property, to come in and all have a look as their time allows.

My plan is to buy the house subject to their existing mortgage, renovate the property, refinance it and pay off their remaining loan balance using the money from the cash out refinance.

For context, I'm based in the SF Bay Area in CA and looking into buying my first OOS rental after house hacking locally for 10 years.

I'd level up with a BRRRR, live-in flip, or house-hack before jumping into a challenging renovation.

But you also SHOULD have some vacancy and some capex on an 80 year old house.