Another idea is there's a brisk market here for short-term rentals so if you live here or have a VERY good ability to manage your business from a distance you can beat 1% easily and maybe even start climbing a little towards 2% if you don't factor in the cost of your time to manage it.

Essentially had three 401Ks with different custodians and simply did a “rollover”.Luckily, my laziness paid off as most folks are told to roll it over to the current employer... bad idea unless it’s either mandated or required (usually <5K vested balance per 401K).

If the idea of doing that keeps you up at night, then it's not worth it!

I work full-time and my wife stays home with our three kiddos so the idea is to be able to do things on our own time, make offers, check out properties, etc.Local REIA meet-ups are definitely on the immediate to-do list.

I do not want to make the agent feel uncomfortable or annoyed with me because I’m looking around with no intention of buying (obviously) but I like to know my market and I want to see some of the houses to get a good idea of how updated the homes are, and what people remodeled etc.

From what I understand, to do the live-in flip the idea is to stay in it for 2 years to not have to pay the Capital Gains taxes (selling before the end of year 5). 

My plan is to refinance my house with a cash out option, I have a decent equity in my house.And use that money to buy my first investment property locally, I live in Houston.The dilemma is my current mortgage rate is 3%, and the refinance rate is 5%, and how good would be start this rental market investments in Houston, I also have the option to buy properties in Las Vegas (Family), but starting as a long-distance landlord might be difficult for a newbie.What are your thoughts or suggestion about this idea?

You can have a realtor run a search of recently rented properties and you can go through the pictures and description and get a pretty good idea of what you should have to be competitive.

Point #1 - foreigners can't own property - unless you're married to a nationalPoint #2 - you can own a condo - without being married to a nationalPoint #3 - you can Airbnb your condoPoint #4 - condos start around $38,000 upwards to $190K.I've toyed with the idea of offering a service to foreign investors as an American "with boots on the ground" to make sure their investment is properly setup. 

The idea of being able to grow wealth through real estate with no ceiling is what fascinates me.