You can give notice to one of the tenants, then move in and rent out rooms to further cut your living expenses.Yes, something I've considered but does require me to move from CA to TN, so big life change. 

But for someone thinking about scaling and possibly repeating the strategy in multiple markets.. say, Austin or San Antonio-going the investment property route might provide more long-term flexibility.Have you noticed lenders trending toward stricter definitions of “second homes” versus investment properties?

@Sanjay Singh but I’ve noticed that many houses there are within my budget ....Can't comment on the Indianapolis market but generally speaking buying real estate in a particular market because the housing is within your budget is not a valid reason to invest.

This allowed them to keep part of their funds liquid for their personal project while still deferring some taxes.Also, I noticed some great advice in earlier replies, particularly about HELOCs and the pitfalls of LLCs for 1031 purposes like @Maureen McCann explained it perfectly.

I noticed the same thing! 

You'll noticed I'm based in one of them!

Defintely lean on those who’ve gone through it before.. it’ll help you dodge those pricy early missteps.When I looked into places like Omaha, Austin, or even San Antonio or Phoenix, I noticed a certain rhythm... and Invsetors I know actually learned a lot just by sitting down with some local landlords over a cup of coffee and hearing stories.

if i buy a rent ready house off the MLS, and put it under management with a good PM... that's basically turnkey too just without the label and the provider.one thing i notice on BP is how many new investors think they're being guaranteed outcomes rather than processes. 

I noticed a triplex that seemed to have an interesting bit of information in the description."

But usually for a tenant occupied it's like $90-120 per monthI've noticed a lot of multi-family buildings are pre-WWII housing inventory - are there restrictions or issues common with that (historic districts, crazy high utility costs, etc)?