Either a single family home, duplex or triplex I find to be the best first investment.The reasoning is this:When you buy rental income and turn a profit, that profit counts toward additional financing for additional properties.

Just curious, how many rehabs do you flip per year and on average, how much do you gross in profit per flip?

The ARM is going to start adjusting, but if you want to gamble and think rates will go down by when the rate starts to re-adjust, an ARM may be for you.

I've heard stories about people buying and holding for a year, and then selling as towns close in on it for a profit.

Flipping has basically two different meanings....You could get a house at an auction, own the house, fix up the property and then sell for a profit....orFind a house that is well below market value, get it under contract, and sell the contract to another investor for a small profit...2-5k.You are referring to the first approach...it's much easier to say rehabbing becuase everyone wil know exactly what you mean.

Splitting $200 or so net profit per month between 5 people doesn't sound great to me.

Just because you can rent for $1200 per month and your mortgage is $1000 - doesn't me you have $200 profit per month.

Does anyone know if the 25% profit is reported as in a 1099 form?

Sheppie - if you have answers and a plan for everything that can possible go wrong in your project and you can handle those obstacles -then I say move forward.However, I will suggest that you start off small in your investment size.Example: Purchase a home that you can afford to make the monthly payments in the event the home does not sell as quickly as you would like it to.Also, don't try to get rich over night...ifyour profit is about $20 -30K...consider yourself a success story instead of trying to make $70-100K your first time around.

Even with record room rates, owning your piece of the condo-hotel business in the United States might not be so profitable, experts are saying.