After 6 months you'll know what strategy you want to deploy, and have the confidence and knowledge to do it.This can also provide time to pay off any consumer debt, save an emergency fund, and start saving for a property as needed.

This means getting on an agreed budget, paying off and avoiding all consumer debt, and saving a healthy emergency fund.Once you've done that house hacking is a great place to start.

After 6 months you'll know what strategy you want to deploy, and have the confidence and knowledge to do it.This can also provide time to pay off any consumer debt, save an emergency fund, and start saving for a property as needed.

If you’ve ever spent hours driving neighborhoods looking for distressed properties, you know how time-consuming and hit-or-miss it can be.

Lesson learn is don't let negativity get to you it's a big challenge and time consuming but getting thru with it is what matters.

After 6 months you'll know what strategy you want to deploy, and have the confidence and knowledge to do it.This will also give you time to pay off any consumer debt, save an emergency fund, and start saving for a new property.

Full disclosure: I operate a turnkey provider in Alabama and, from my observation, plenty of areas in the state are positioned well for cash flow, including Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa.One thing I would like to point out is that short-term rentals are time-consuming and, unless you have a customer service and on-demand cleaning team built up, it’s fairly difficult to scale.

In my state (California), properties governed by the Tenant Protection Act are limited to increases of 5% plus the local Consumer Price Index (CPI), not to exceed 10% in a 12-month period.

Obviously, you will want to consider carefully whether you want to roll your consumer debt into your home, whether the new payment is beneficial, and whether you are able to not incur further consumer debt after the refi is complete.  

Loan for personal residences come with many more consumer protections.