Soon to be college grad, planning to buy first investment, Advice/Thoughts

[Will Bazile]

Hi Everyone, I am excited to be a part of the Bigger Pockets community. I came to know of bigger pockets about 2-3 weeks ago and have been listening and educating myself on RE and FI. It has been an eye-opening experience, and I plan to continue to learn a lot in the years to come.  I have been looking through the forum and have not found anyone in a similar situation so I thought I would make a post to see if I can get some advice/tips/knowledge from experts or find people in similar situations.

I am currently a senior in college and will be graduating in May. I have a job already lined up after I graduate that will pay $82,000/year. The job requires me to move, but it is still in the same state I live in (driving distance from home to the new city is about 2.5 hours, housing market is also considerably cheaper than in my home city). By the time I graduate, I will have a little over $27,000 in student debt (All federal, only debt that I have) and $20k in savings. My original plan (pre-knowledge of bigger pockets and fi) was to find a decent place to rent and save to pay the debt off in the first year of post-graduation (similar to the teachings of Dave Ramsey). After listening and reading to BP and other sources, I have decided to start my journey in RE/FI, I want to house hack and live/buy property (most likely a duplex) in the new city as I plan on working here for at least the next 5 ish years (my position is a program and will require me to be there at least for 4 years).

The new plan for debt would be to choose an IDR plan and pay the min on my loans initially throughout the process and then at some point (within the next 5 years post-grad) pay the loan off before I think about making any other RE decision). House hacking to me sounds ideal as it would cover some/all my living expenses given, and would be in close proximity of my job, and would be an opportunity to start expanding my portfolio. 

I have read and listened to a lot of advice about buying property and some of the decisions and thoughts one should have before making the decision. Although I am really excited and it's like a feasible plan to me,  I wanted to get the opinions of people in the forum of what they think would make the most sense given my situation, and if you do recommend buying property, any advice around that. I do plan on educating myself throughout the time before graduating but any of the top advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Will Bazile]

My house hacking plan was to put 3.5 percent down on an FHA loan with 300-320k being my max range (Market pricing and my goal is loosely around 220-280k). From calculations, I would have enough for DP, closing costs (if I can't get seller to cover), mortgage assuming I do not have tenants (on expected salary), would be within by dti means and not stretch my income. I also forgot to mention my credit score is low 740s atm.