Not sure what kind of property to start with & looking for advice

[Justin C.]

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts to learn more about the RE investing world and form a foundation of knowledge. As someone starting out with no actual experience, it’s a bit of information overload. Since I’ve been lurking for quite a while I figured it was finally time to introduce myself and make a post to see if you knowledgeable folks could share your wisdom and help me break down some of these ideas and concepts so that I can figure out the best plan to move forward with.

Bit of background about me:
31 years old
Single (in a relationship but unmarried)
20k student loan debt, no other debt
70k saved (20k more in Roth IRA but probably wouldn't want to touch that since it's for retirement)
Stable full time office job - 70k/year
790 credit score
Located in the greater Boston area of MA
Currently renting and do not own any property

Now that you have a little bit of background, I was hoping I could get advice on the best way to get started with something. As you may be aware, housing prices are ridiculously crazy around here with low supply and high demand. Because of this Ive been looking in areas outside of the city like Framingham, Billerica, Norwood, Dedham, Stoneham, Tewksbury, etc as this is all I can get a loan for. My struggle so far is that any good deal that comes up is grabbed super quickly by cash buyers or someone offering way over asking price.

I'm interested in house hacking and the BRRrR method after listening to the BP podcast on it, but I'm open to any ideas where I can use RE to build equity/passive cash flow. Ideally, I'd love to find a 3 bed 2 bath SFH that needs work but not a complete gut, live in it for a year while I fix it up, then refinance and start renting it out. The downside seems to be the lack of options. Anything I can afford is going to be pretty far outside the city and much more rural which I imagine would be harder to rent out and would also probably need a complete rehab on top of the already high sale price.

One idea I've been toying with is buying a condo/townhouse. I know they don't have the best reputation on here, but there's a lot of them around those towns I mentioned and many seem to be in my price range (under 350k). I've found quite a few with fairly low condo fees which include exterior maintenance which is a plus and some even include heat. Cash flow probably wouldn't be much at first but over time as rent increases and mortgage stays consistent it'll slowly get better. With the crazy rise in cost of housing here, condos are gaining popularity because it's all people can afford and young professionals like them because they tend to be in busier downtown areas.

Another idea I had was buying something out of state. It’s mind blowing how much cheaper real estate is in other cities further south and I feel like I could possibly get a multi family somewhere else that’s in decent shape. Is this even realistic to look into as a first time buyer? Could I even get a loan for this?

Again, SFH would be most ideal, but given the location/prices/competition I'm just a little discouraged and feeling like that's probably out of the picture.

I know this has been a long ranting read, so if you've made it this far I appreciate it. Let me know your thoughts! What would you do if you were in my shoes? Should I avoid townhouses/condos, or keep looking into them? Only go for SFH? Buy out of state?