Leverage your construction skills for flips, start with smaller projects to minimize risk, and consider house hacking or long-term rentals for a steady income.

.🔹 Ideal in Any Market – Whether home prices are rising or falling, lease options allow you to lock in today’s price while benefiting from future appreciation.Other creative strategies—like seller financing, subject-to deals, and the BRRRR method—can also open doors, but lease options remain one of the most powerful, low-risk, minimal cash out-of-pocket ways to build a portfolio.

When something goes wrong, you can find the best contractor for the job, who can make the repairs right away, and now your tenants are happy, and you have minimized the time you would have spent speaking to your tenants about the delay or fighting a warranty company.

If you’re serious about bidding, investing in a professional title search is worth it to minimize risk.

.✅ This avoids wasting time screening unqualified tenants.3) Before Lease Signing (Final Step)✅ Run the background check before approving the tenant, so you can verify:Credit history & income stability Eviction & rental historyCriminal background (if applicable in your state)Final ThoughtThe best time is after the showing but before lease approval—this ensures you’re only screening serious applicants while minimizing wasted time and costs.

However, you can reduce tax liability by:Converting the flip into a rental for at least a year, allowing for depreciation and potential 1031 exchange benefits when selling.Offsetting gains with deductions, such as accelerating business expenses or using cost segregation for rentals.Using an S-Corp for future flips to lower self-employment taxes while keeping rentals in an LLC for liability protection.Deferring deductions to 2025 if your 2024 taxable income is high.While a 1031 exchange isn’t an option for flips, strategic tax planning can help minimize taxes.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

If you put in the effort to source the right opportunity, you’ll find a way to fund it—even with minimal personal cash investment.It sounds like you already have the skills and experience; now it’s just about structuring the right deal.

With the run up on RE prices and boom of STRs over last 5ish years people have been led to believe it is easy and leveraging has minimal risk.

Your father-in-law will want to minimize his tax liability on the capital gain and think about how the sale fits into his estate planning strategy.

This is in an effort to let the investment play out and try to minimize their loss.