Struggling to put together my plan

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

Hello! I am working on putting together a plan to acquire my next property. I began saving in January and have $7k built up so far. My original plan was to look for a single family in the $60k range in the Youngstown, OH area with the intent to use the rental profit to save up for a third property. I figure I'm 6-9 months away from my goal of $15-20k for a down payment and small emergency fund. 

Here are my dilemmas: 

1) Do I target the Youngstown or Cleveland markets? On the one hand, I live in Cleveland now and have no shortage of tenants to rent the spare bedrooms of my primary residence; however, it would take longer to save as I'd need a larger down payment because real estate is more affordable in Youngstown. I also have more resources in Youngstown in terms of family, contractors, repairmen, etc. 

2) Do I aim for a single family to start out or a multi-family? I like the idea of multi-families more, but again, I'd need a larger down payment.

Or are these questions I shouldn't even be concerned with as I'm still a while away from having sufficient cash for a down payment?

TIA!

[Ian Kurela]

I would say stick to your immediate area. If you are willing to drive in the middle of the night all the way to Y-town when a tenant says their AC broke then I would go with Youngstown for the cheaper properties. I assume you will not be having a PM on it. There are plenty of opportunities around CLE