I've spent the last few months studying the Erie market intensely and I'm planning to do my first house flip within the next year or so.Here's where I'm at:Stable W2 income ($85K), aggressively saving toward a $35K+ war chest for my first dealTargeting cosmetic-rehab properties in Little Italy, West Bayfront, and the Academy area - $40K-$60K purchase price, $130K-$155K ARV rangeStudying sold comps, driving neighborhoods on weekends, and learning renovation skills through Habitat for Humanity and hands-on practicePlanning to use hard money financing for the first dealWhat makes me a little different: I'm using my AI/software engineering background to build deal analysis tools - automated comp pulling, ARV estimation, distressed property alerts, and rehab cost calculators.

I see a specific "cycle of failure" happen constantly with capital raisers.
You hate marketing, so you hire a "Done-For-You" agency. You pay a retainer, get mediocre results (or used car salesman copy), fire them, an...

Subdivisions get capital-intensive fast, so the financing challenge you’re anticipating is real for most developers, even in the U.S.A few approaches I’ve seen work in similar situations:Phase financing instead of trying to fund the whole thing at once.Some lenders (private or institutional) will fund infrastructure and horizontal work in stages as lots are pre-sold.

The BRRR vs flip decision isn't really about which one is easier -- they're equally hard, just different kinds of hard.Flipping is capital intensive but short-term.

Real Estate Agents take state RE tests, pass, get their license and then go get listings and in several cases with no formal sales training.

Curious how others stress-test their assumptions before committing capital.

If you have a few rentals and your budgets for expenses, vacancy, cap ex are working adding another unit isn't something you need to stress over "testing" because I always view my risk as being my portfolio as a whole not property by property. 

I've just signed up so test driving it!

Airbnb tested you at $400 and you converted.

The self-sufficiency test still applies, but now the numbers have a real chance.