Northern NJ Looking to Purchase Rental Property - Have Questions!

[Kelsey C.]

Hello everyone! I am new to BiggerPockets and real estate investing in general. I am reading through the free e-book provided by BiggerPockets and am starting to accumulate a list of questions, hopefully someone might be able to provide some insight on. I've tried searching and I've had no luck so far. We're still probably a good year away from being ready financially and education-wise to take the plunge in actually purchasing a property, but I want to try to learn as much as possible sooner, rather than later, so we have ample time to prepare to achieve our goals.

1. We would ultimately like to purchase a single-family home to buy and hold somewhere in the Northern NJ area, but we haven't yet settled on an area. I've been trying to do my own research on different towns in our area to see what a 3 bed 2 bath would sell for versus what it would rent for in the same town, but is there a better resource to determine what the going rate would be for a rental property?

2. Another question along the same lines as number 1, I've read that you should try to find a rental property in an area that is on the rise, and one that has high rental demand. But just how do you determine that?

3. My husband and I currently own a condo, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom in Northern NJ. We paid $260k for the unit and similar units are now listing for $275k-310k. It looks like we might have some decent equity in it now with a mortgage balance of $239k (we had found an amazing deal with an FHA loan with 3.375% interest rate, no PMI, with 3.5% down). But now my concern with the idea of looking for a rental property is, will a bank give us a loan? We're working to pay off all other non-mortgage debt, so we'd be looking at $1544/month including mortgage, real estate taxes, homeowners insurance, plus $309 in HOA fees. My salary is $70,500 and my husband owns a business which he took over a little over a year ago (my next concern - when we purchased this unit the bank gave him a hard time before he owned the business due to a short work history and they deemed his income commission) which has netted approximately $20k this year and we don't forsee decreasing by the end of the year. Our personal debt to income ratio would be approximately 25%, but assuming on the conservative side that the bank will not consider my husband as having a reliable income for a mortgage, 32% of my income alone. I'm ultimately just wondering if anyone else has gone through a remotely similar situation and if they could share any thoughts or tips they may have learned as a result.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my long-winded questions and I look forward to learning from all of you!