Patience in finding the right property

[Eric Pink]

Rookie here. I am about a month or two away from shopping for mortgages and I check the typical MLS sites and a few other local real estate sites daily looking for deals. My wife and I want to purchase a multi-family to live in and rehab for our first property. The problem seems to be that there are few quality multi-families in decent neighborhoods in the Durham area that we would consider living in. We are also open to purchasing a single family home and house hacking it, but I really like the idea of tenants paying the mortgage in the multi-family situation while you save money (from other job) and rehab. My question is how long should one wait to find their ideal property? I want to take action and not sit on the sidelines, but I also hear that you need to find your niche and stick to it. Any opinions? Thanks in advance.