If your market is pretty hot then it may be more cost effective to do the bare minimum to get it ready for sale.

I would rather collect rent and keep that paying down the loan bare minimum, rather than sell and keep money in a bank account "waiting" for an opportunity. 

I'm building two smaller properties like this at the moment that barely work; there's numbers below in case anyone considering this strategy wants to compare their expectations to reality. 

I'll invest places where they have a bare modicum of respect for people taking the risk of providing rentals.

Later on you can get a 401K loan to access that money for investing.In the past I contributed the bare minimum to get the match, but now I contribute the maximum $18,000/year.

Every fix and flip opportunity we look at, we will barely clear $10k-$20k assuming there are no underlying issues. 

I will be in Dallas for a few days in June to experience the “hot” weather and see if that’s something I can bare and check out some potential areas we want to live.

I have bare land down that way but cant figure out what to do with it.

Again, I will share the guru name most definitely, but at the meantime please bare with me when trying all I can to resolve the best way I can !

My justification for that is if we are living in it for half the mortgage and pay the rest out of pocket why not be in a home that we live in instead of putting into a property that barely cash flows and we may have to pay out of pocket as well.