For anyone doing any real volume of flipping (more than 1-2 per year, or even just 1 big dollar flip), a smart move is to work with your tax planner to turn the activity into a true business.  

If you keep a consistent $5k in reserves due to your estimates today, you'd be scrambling to come up with an extra $1,400 in the future.Hopefully, investors are smart enough to invest in the area where rent goes up as time goes...

You were smart to turn it around into a buy and hold.

It is not something I think I want to do the rest of my life (constant travel) so that is why I want to be smart and pay down some debt, but also save to invest in real estate.

It's a great time to be building your real estate portfolio.Your mantra of "equity is the icing on the cake; cash flow is the goal" nails what a smart investors focus should be.Be sure to check out the Ultimate Beginners Guide as well as my 10 Rules of Successful Real Estate Investing.Continues success! 

A smart tax adviser once told me to never put your primary home into an LLC.  

I am thinking with NO bank we can pretty much write up anything that works for both partiesThanks much, love this site with all the info from such smart people.Joseph Q

we just had a thread on smart move the other day.  

. :)As for your personal happening, you are making sense to me and i think you are a smart not to jump on the very first thing you come across.

Appraisers can make errors, but from the appraisal, you should be able to get an idea of how to use similar properties that sold as recently as possible and how adjustments are made for size, features and amenities.The key is to get smart and get started.