I've done some flips in Hawaii at much larger price points but the Midwest in my opinion is still one of the best markets for cash flow. 

You can also hire a real estate attorney off of UpWork or Fiverr to review the documents and give you an opinion just to be sure.

We are both very hard workers and have a lot of ideas such as saving to buy investments in cash (takes a while), using private lending and keep the savings as an investment rainy day fund, and others, but it always helps to get a second opinion. 

Dave solo discussing the opinions in other articles is decent.  

Additionally, add in the ambiguity/risk of the due on sale clause or ramifications on the conventional loan of transferring the property from your individual name to an LLC - the economics don't make sense, and the headache isn't worth it even if it did, in my opinion!

In my opinion, both have their pros and cons and neither is 100% superior to the other.

And once they announced so, everybody simply followed the IRS opinion without questioning it.

The real pool season is 3-4 months, which also sways my opinion. 

I know some will differ here but I will offer my personal opinion like many others have.

The tax rate difference from from long term to short term alone won't make it worthwhile in my opinion- add the 401K withdrawal penalty on top.