1st Investment: Condo or Multi-Unit?

[Cheryl Vawdrey]

Hi All, 

Apologies in advance if this question is already covered within the forums.

Looking to invest in my first rental property and trying to decide on whether or not to focus on a condo or multi-unit in Queens and wanted to see what the going wisdom in the forums would be.  

Pros for Condos: more straight forward/traditional financing, i.e. will be able to put more down.  Lower maintenance needed from owner: things like snow and garbage removal, etc. will be covered in the monthly maintenance fees. 

Pros for Multi-Family: More rental income, more autonomy in managing (no condo board/rules, etc.) and based on my own personal experience, free-standing homes seem to appreciate fairly aggressively in Queens.

So many of the podcasts and exchanges I've read on BP seem very pro-multi-units and scaling up as big as possible. 

I want to follow a "slow and steady wins the race," so that in 5+ years, if I would like to do this full-time, I can.  

Any and all thoughts and feedback welcome!

Best,

Cheryl