I am an RN that had all but given up hope of home ownership in our area north of Seattle with the housing market going berserk (my wife is stay-at-home Mom), but things have financially changed for us since I started travel nursing in our local area (local travel nursing - same commute time but different hospital and better pay). We are in a position to possibly buy something with a 90k downpayment money ready. I am reluctant to buy just for ourselves....I would hate to be house broke and I'm inspired by the stories of everyone here that can use real estate to protect assets and earn more revenue -- I want a house that will work for us in other words.

I recently saw a property near the hospital, a nice single-family residence for $540k (on the market for 2 months with one price reduction since initially listed) with two dwellings (primary and 400 square foot ADU) in a very nice neighborhood. It would be perfect for travel nurses (2 minute drive) that come and go from our hospital. I currently rent from a family friend that has some health issues and we pay very little for our rent at $1100 / month covering everything / all utilities, etc, and is in a beautiful place so I am reluctant to leave our place where we live and instead want to farm out this house as an income tax shelter + gain some equity in something. Financially, I told my wife that I'm looking at being taxed over $30,000 alone from my current income, $16,000 in donations/tithes, but I was looking into the math and saw that there are lots of things one could write off from home ownership $37k in interest on a loan potentially, $3.5k PMI, $5.4k property taxes, standard rental depreciation costs. It gets pretty complex fast. The general gist of what I was thinking was of buying and using the property to maximize my savings of income (rental would be at LEAST $1600 per unit per month so at least $3200 per month but potentially higher with mid-term rentals with travel nurses). Any thoughts out there -- it seems like there are numerous benefits to ownership of a home and a double rental home seems like it would protect some of my earnings and allow me to build equity into SOMETHING (anything) so that maybe someday I could even buy my landlord's home when his health gets worse and he cannot stay here any longer and we would live in our beautiful location with a rental on the property as well. Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Seattle, Washington

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