In almost all investments, you should have a solid base of reliable, cash-flowing, and hopefully appreciating assets before striking out into something new or riskier. 

It could be as soon as next week that I'll be back in Austin, so I wanted to see the likelihood of doing a single flip, for the first year, and what this looks like financially over time as we increase.

This is a great first step into your financial future.

So if you move your IRA assets to 401k, including both rentals - you can finance them in the 401k and be exempt from UBIT.

Keep in mind banks still pool forclosed assets together and sell them all together as a group to one company.  

@John Lasher If you are still looking to spend $20k-$30K for a coach, I would be happy to take you up on that offer :) For full disclosure,  I will share with you precisely what you can learn online/ perhaps even entirely through these BiggerPockets Forums but that doesn't address the reason why most are still unable to purchase larger assets: creditworthiness and capital relationships.

Prioritize your financial stability.

If you are in low to mid six figures say $250k a year -   you would need around $2.5  - $3M in cash to make the similar income consistently and without significant risk.Thank you, Chris, for your thoughtful insights—it’s an excellent point to consider the financial and tax implications of leveraging equity.

These are the financial concerns:1.

I'm just not seeing any strategy that can offset to any significant degree, the depreciating nature of either asset.