@Gabriella Borukhov a chance of outperforming this by operational success but boy that is iffy, especially for a first flip.

A 6.4 cap is nothing amazing, but it still outperforms the historical stock market returns.I'll take a 30% return on my money this year!

And for many who have cash they get hooked to the passive nature of the business and to the returns that over time will usually out perform rental properties.Once folks have been through the rental cycle and realize how tough it is to be a landlord they start looking at lending its a natural progression.. of course many have a combination of both.. but I have seen it happen with great frequencies over the years.. my clients selling off rentals to put into notes.

Just buying and flipping vehicles from Craigslist in my time off I have vastly outperformed my small TSP account from civil service.And that leads me to think that in the big-boy market of housing, I will also vastly outperform any advantage in the TSP.On active duty in high BAH zones (I'm in the San Francisco area) most of our pay is tax free to begin with.

They have appreciated more than any other investments during the booms years, yet were the most resilient in moments of crisis .They have outperformed general real estate, hedge funds , stocks market by a large margin.

Normally a SFR is always going to out perform condos and town homes.

It Continues to outperform all other asset Classes.  

There are times where other asset classes outperform RE.Look at our recent financial crisis.During the crisis, gold spikes up (herding into safety assets).During the beginning of the post-crisis (2010-2012), stock market way outperform the real estate market (at least certain parts of the country).  

If you want to put your money into an arena that will likely outperform nearly every other means of accessible investment, then proceed.

hey Account Closed, i had the same idea once i saw deals were not easy. then again, nothing good is easy. my advice to you is don't go it alone, but try to minimize yourself getting cheated... next piece of advice is this: don't buy just a condo yourself, and then expect to buy investment property. your next property, if it's within 2 years, will be considered an investment property, and you will have to put down 20-25%, otherwise wait 2 years. i don't know your situation and life story, but also, it would be much easier to find lenders going from a 2 family to 1 family, than a 1 family to 2 family. as for stocks, i'm into the long game, so Vanguard ETFs, indexes are the way i go. warren buffett has a bet going on with a hedge fund manager; 1 million dollars to the charity of choice if the s&p 500 outperform the top 3 hedge funds of anyone's choosing over 10 years. someone took him on that bet but warren buffett is winning.