Possible Opportunity, Need advice...

[Freddy Secreast]

I don't know if any of you have heard of the Neighbor Next Door Program through HUD, but I am eligible and thinking of taking part in the program. It basically gives you a 50% discount on homes listed through HUD in specific areas deemed "revitalization areas". You take out two mortgages, each for 50% of the price of the property. One of the mortgages is like any other mortgage requiring payments towards the P+I and such. But the second mortgage requires no payments and after three years(residency required for those three years) the second mortgage disappears, and you are free to do what you want with the property(Rent, Sell).

I already live in a pretty bad area, and I am relatively young. I have a nice steady career with the federal government so I am not worried about being laid off at all ever. I was thinking about taking part in this program and then maybe renting or selling the property for profit after(at 50% off I would no doubt be making a profit).

The area that I've been looking in for this program is a hard hit area by this current "mortgage crisis" and has multiple foreclosed homes and tempting bargains throughout the city(just outside of Boston). There are many multi-family homes which were selling for over 300K 3 years ago, that are now selling for under 125K. Besides using the program I mentioned above, I was also thinking of buying one of these multi-family properties and renting them out. Some of these properties are 2-3 bedrooms in each unit and could easily fetch 900-1150 in rent a month.

This all sounds like a really good deal to me, but I'm too new in this real estate thing to know for sure if what I'm doing is right. I am very interested in real estate and actually was planning on being an agent(took the class), but then realized a nice steady career with the gov't would probably leave me better off for now. Basically what I'm looking for is some seasoned guys who know what they're talking about to give me some advice. Any input would be appreciated even if you're just calling me a fool. Lol.

Thanks in advance.

(Also, I should mention I don't have much money for a down payment or anything like that. And the rest of my family is poor, as I'm basically taking care of them, so just keep that in mind. :( )

-Freddy