As for the original question, it's got a lot of variables, but I would say rent if the timeframe was shorter, but for '3 to 5 years' with potential that it may change, I'd look to buy now at a discount, depending on the budget Jay is looking at.

So, the owner ends up paying a lot of the expenses out of their own pocket (off budget).

We have a house payment, and a truck payment.

They are good at getting the projects done on time and on budget.

Hard to say without all the figures, but just from seeing 10-15k profit on a project costing 360-515k, thats a pretty small margin that you can easily eat up with a 65k budget.

Additionally, since they paid too much for their property, they don't have the cash flow to cover the expenses and therefore expenses for many things come from their personal account and are "off budget".

How much is your budget?

By budgeting for the cost of repairs, you avoid overimproving the property relative to its surroundings (neighboring rental properties) & keep your project in line with prices (average rent levels) your buyers (tenants) are willing to pay.

If you have a warehouse and you turn it into a number of low budget recording studio (practice studios) the income produced can jump significantly.

Even with a high repair budget I’ll still be at about 60% when I’m done.