A thousand things can derail a flip - changing market, underestimate expenses or overestimating income, mistakes, errors, contractor issues, permitting issues, just to name a few. 

People often ask me how they should determine their operating expenses. 

That GRI does include income for cleaning, taxes etc. though normally, which is really pass through expenses for the most part.

Thank you.Hey Celestin, I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

Finishing details is the most expensive part of remodeling property.

Either way, if you can cancel out your living expenses completely with this house hack while gaining experience managing the STR, I don't think you can beat that.

I am seeking insights and recommendations from the community regarding potential locations in and around Orlando where full duplexes might be more readily available within my budget.My plan is to house hack, and based on my initial calculations, I anticipate an extra expense of $1.5K beyond rental income to cover the mortgage.

I've done that twice now.Hard Money Lenders can be a great resource but they generally want to lend to someone with experience and the terms are expensive versus conventional financing. 

BUT the benefit of a house hack is to save money on living expenses.

They are expensive (30% fee) but they cover 100% of all management responsibilities.