Starting out: Primary (CA) vs Rental (OOS)

[Scott Doyen]

Any advice?

Situation: I am a young tech professional. My gf is applying to nursing school and we think she will start somewhere in the Sacramento Area in about 6-12 months. It is generally a 2-2.5 year program. Now this means that if she is indeed in the Sac area then I will be here for a fact at minimum 2-3 more years. After that, I say it's 50 50. I've committed to myself that I want to get into Real Estate sooner rather than later ("it's not about timing the market, but time in the market"). So I see 3 options:

1) Buy SFH (conventional loan) in between Sac-Folsom area. A lot of the duplexes just aren't in that nice of areas. And while I might be able to "rough" it, my guess is the girlfriend might not. Homes in some places I'm looking at are still fairly cheap 350k is what I'm seeing. That currently rents around 1.8-2k. According to most cash flow estimates though, it's negative if I were to rent out but I'd live in it for 3 yrs building equity rather than paying rent. Is it worth it?

2) Buy OOS - probably turnkey B class properties. I would do my due diligence - see the property, hire inspector, make sure school is good, crime is low, etc.

3) Wait till we both really know where we want to end up (5-10 yrs).

What do you guys think? Any other recommendations? Thanks :)