Your post may resonate with someone who is in the process of listing a traditional rental but who had never previously considered arbitrage.Please keep us posted on this thread on how you ultimately find your successful leads.

If not, better to get an easy one for the first one.....And don't worry too much about the interest rates. they are still pretty low (historically anyway, I won't even tell you what they were for my first house :-)The numbers just have to work, and they can work with even higher rates.....there are other variables, including the perceived high rates keeping a lot of your competitors out of the market.

Depending on the amount of equity you have along with the cash flow that is existing right now, perhaps looking to do a cash out refi to capture some of that equity, keep your property and tenants in place?

It makes it way easier to keep an eye on the project and to know the people involved.

Keep an eye out closer to the summer for our Fall Bootcamp announcement!

As I dug into the project, I realized that I was both well suited for flipping (or keeping), but also that I was genuinely enjoying the process.   

There is a delicate balance somewhere between keeping legislation strong enough to protect homeowners, while also not burdening the industry so much that people choose to do work illegally as you suggested, or take unnecessary time to deliver a finished project (and thus a home for somebody in this case).

Correctly implemented, the resulting property value would exceed 200k, but I am looking to keep the building in the family. 

@Marc Possoff Definitely keep the house the appreciation from those projects is gonna do wonders in a few years.

I really appreciate the insight now and I'll definitely have to keep it in mind the next time I visit Houston.