Newbie with $30K. Where to begin???

[Niaja Farve]

Hi. New to the site and have about 30K saved up with no debt. I currently live in Japan until March, but would like to start purchasing property in the states. Is it best to start with a owner occupied property (duplex) or is it possible to buy a rental property and still be able to buy a home for myself by March?

[Logan Turner]

Ok, here goes:

Your max number is 170k. That tells me your debt to income is probably a little high and almost guarantees that you will not be able to buy two different places. One now and then another one in a few months. I would definitely wait until you can see one in person too. You need to walk the property, get a good sense of the neighborhood. Does the neighbor play loud music and have a pit bull on a chain? Google street view is amazing but since you will Likely only be able to purchase one property in the next 12 months, I would wait until your back in the states.

Single family is nice but if you want a place to live for yourself and you want to start collecting some rent, then look at 2-4 unit places. Duplexes with a yard are great.

Must read list:

Brandon turner the book on rental properties
The millionaire real estate investor by Gary Keller
Investing in real estate by Gary eldred
what every real estate investor needs to know about cash flow by frank Gallineli

Read all of them, in no particular order.
Pick an area to focus on and go from there.

I would 100 percent without any doubt go the duplex route. 4 plex if you can find a nice one. You get a place to live, you get to practice being a landlord. You can go slow, no pressure to rush to find a tenant (pick a good one not he first one), hopefully it's a little distressed and you can fix it up a bit. Get some sweat equity out of it. Then in 12 months buy another one and you have 3-7 units rented and your living in the other one.

Look up BRRRR strategy