I know cold calling and postcards have worked for some people  So far as I know driving for dollars can be effective, especially looking for those distressed properties in your local area and cold calling or leaving postcards like you mentioned.

I've run various calculations on what the value of my downpayment money would be over a 5, 10, 15, and 20-year period based on just leaving it untouched in the IRA vs. using it to invest in a STR and in almost all cases the STR outperforms, unless it just massively underperforms. 

My question is should I invest in DC this December while on leave for 25 days?

Quote from @Brittany Kelly: We have tenants whose lease expired 5/31 who won’t leave and haven’t paid rent.

And other tenants either leave or don’t pay rent on time.l and whenever they leave I have to put in money for making it rent ready again.And every time someone leaves it takes months to get new tenant.On top of it there are multiple repairs every month.

If you sell for $2.5M, that leaves you with a $1.43M gain—$930K taxable after the exclusion.

We are in an age of planned obsolescence  & over consumerism, where a decent amount of contractors will charge a high price, then leaving certain jobs not completely done or not done the right way leaving the end consumer to suffer the consequences because they are trying to make the most money. 

Expect them not to leave, and have your attorney file a holdover eviction on the day following the end of their lease.Without a plan in place, many new folks will drag out the inevitable, hemorrhaging money the whole way. 

Calvin is a valuable member of these forums and him leaving would be a net negative in my opinion.

Instead:Buy in an LLC and use DSCR loans (which don’t affect personal DTI),Or do a hybrid strategy: some conventional, some DSCR, so you can balance cash flow, rates, and how much room you’re leaving in your personal debt profile.That approach gives you access to capital now and preserves your borrowing power as you scale.