Cheese7

I currently have 240 hours TT. I should have CSEL within a month and CFI by the end of May. I'm planning to get CFII, CMEL, and MEI over the summer as money allows.

I'm a career changer in the making, currently working full time in a career unrelated to aviation. My current career pays well, but doesn't light my fire like flying does. My goal is to get to the right seat of a regional airline ASAP without going broke in the process. I'm planning on retiring from my current career later this year (after I finish paying for my ratings, my debt, and save up a bit of cash to tide me over through the low income pilot years).

I'm considering moving to a high density flight training area to work as a CFI (like Phoenix, San Diego, LA area, Florida, Dallas, Vegas...). I'm hoping to be able to fly 80-120 hours per month (or more if possible).

I was told by someone "in-the-know" that the lower your time is, the more desirable you are to a flight school since they know they will have you there longer before moving on to the airlines. My questions: Is this even true? And if so, should I decline commercial flying opportunities that arise for me in the short-term future? Should I try to keep my TT low in order to be more likely to get a good CFI job (high volume of hours/month)? The difference would be 280 hours TT or 400-500 hours TT. My gut tells me to take all the flying I can get as fast as I can get it, I just don't want to get stuck looking for a CFI job at a decent flight school with 500 hours TT because they're giving all the jobs to the guys/gals with 260 hours, know what I mean?

Thanks for the feedback.