Hello,I am looking at several tools. I have the bright investor free trial. There is a bit of learning curve but the more I use it, the more I like it. I have heard a lot about Propstream as well. Any thoughts on eith...

I plan to build versus buy because Im currently working for my father, who is a general contractor in Fl, and will save on the construction costs because I can do most of the work for little cost other than materials. it would be minimum labor cost and no profit cost from contractor.

Specifically, is there a statistical difference in the likelihood of actually acquiring the physical property versus simply earning interest on the debt as a financial investment?

Its tough to give more advice without actual numbers to see the sale proceeds versus the down payments.Nothing wrong with a 50/50 split other than when it comes time to take out your share in cash other than split rents. 

It’s great to see your enthusiasm for diving into real estate investing and flipping houses, especially with your experience in home improvement and remodeling.You raise an excellent point about using your own cash versus financing through hard money loans.

While I don't raise debt offerings, like Chris does, my general sentiment is that many investors are wanting more security these days versus equity, and those that are open to equity, at least in the multifamily space, are looking for very high returns, given the perceived risks they are hearing about in the news.

On the flip side, mass transit can help with the car issue and water/sewer upgrades can help with the utility usage.As far as single family versus multifamily, usually multifamily is taxed higher.

You could do that for 3-5% down.. live in it for a year to meet typical requirements for use… then move into a new house, and ‘voila’ - you bought your second (multi-family) rental for 3-5% down instead of 20-25%.It is entirely possible though that you will face debt to income issues on your first rental if your lender wants to see a year or twos worth of rental history before counting your rental income to offset your debt payments…so beware of that.Otherwise you may have to look at creative financing… maybe bringing in a money person where it was a short term investment for them, like “I’ll give you 8% on your money (versus the 4-5,% you could earn from the bank CD) if you will partner with me on this purchase.”

The best part is this is not money lost, meaning, you can always pull lout the amount of credit that you have up to the high loan limit, versus where your current balance is.

Effective age on the appraisal report is 18 yrs versus actual 39-year age of the unit, with a C4 condition rating.