My first buy & hold?

[Janelle Vigario]

Hi there! I've been lurking here for awhile now, and enjoy reading everyone else's posts. I wanted to get your feelings on how this sounds. We currently own (well, still making payments on it) a home in a nice location, just north of Concord, NH. I work mostly from home, but have to travel to the office one a week, and my husband also is about to start a new job from home, part time. We bought this house as a foreclosure about a year ago and planned on selling it once we grew out of the house (it's ~1100 sq. ft, 2 bedroom 1 bath). We considered a duplex when we first were looking, but were nervous because duplex's around here come with a bigger price tag, and were nervous about our safety net and paying for things if any major issues came up. 

Anyhow, we've gotten the real estate bug again and have been keeping an eye out on properties throughout the state. There is a town in No. NH that is currently economically slow, but houses up there are super cheap- like, we could purchase one and swing the mortgage for both if we had to, no problem. Also, just 7 days ago, there was an announcement that this town just got approval for a large high-tech greenhouse from a company that's based in Boston. They're estimating it will be 172 acres and will employ approximately 80 people, with salaries starting at $30,000. (That's not *that bad* for up there) Would this be a good time to invest? Houses are running from 15-70 thousand, and there are a lot for sale. (Normally I'd say no way, not enough jobs in the area) I've seen a few houses at about the 30k mark that are move in ready. I was thinking another option would be to (if we liked a specific area- there is a nice river that goes through town, but I'd have to learn more about it- and the price tag may be a big more for waterfront) rent out our current house and move in to that one once it was ready. (I think we'd be able to rent our house for 200 above our current house payment. If I were to look at a 10% "vacancy" rate and 10% maintenance rate, we'd be just shy of breaking even, which would still be coming out more "ahead" than we currently are) 

Am I putting the cart before the horse? Or is this a great way to affordably get in to the market?