If your first find comes off your own windshield, are you wholesaling it or keeping it?

I've been circling strategies for months and driving is the one I can start on Saturday with no budget. What I haven't settled is what I'm supposed to do with a property if I get one under contract, and the answer changes what kind of houses I should be logging in the first place.

Wholesale it. Assign the contract to another investor for a fee, walk away with cash, never touch a permit or a lender. Lowest capital, fastest cycle, and it teaches me the acquisition half of the business, which is the half driving actually trains. The downside is that I've built no asset and I'm back on the street next weekend needing another one.

Hold it. Same driving, same outreach, but I need financing, a rehab budget, and a tolerance for being a landlord. Slower, and my first deal ties up whatever money I have. In exchange the discount I found stays with me instead of going to the buyer I assigned to.

The reason it matters upstream is the logging. If I'm assigning, I want houses that other investors want, which means whatever the local buyer box is. If I'm holding, I want the boring 3 bed in a neighborhood that rents, and half the ugly houses I've photographed don't fit that at all.

So which was your first exit, and would you pick the same one again knowing what you know now?