Have a choice to buy my first house or buy a rental, any advice?

[Carter Henderson]

Would like to start out investing in real estate. I have enough capital for a place just under half a million dollars. I cannot decide wether to buy my first house for my new family (currently renting) or buy a rental property. Anybody have some good insights?

[Scott Jensen]

@Carter Henderson What about buying a small multi-family property (duplex, triplex, or 4-plex)?  You could live in one unit and rent out the remaining ones.  A great thing about that strategy is that you are using residential financing at a considerably lower interest rate than investment property financing.