Austin Real Estate: Is this a solid plan?

[Ajeet Baath]

Hello all,

This would be my first time investing. Some background on me, my fiancée and I make a combined income of around $170k and we live in southwest Austin, 10min from downtown. We are looking to buy a home for ourselves by early 2022 (after our wedding) and I wanted to make it an opportunity to begin a portfolio of SFHs. The reasoning behind choosing SFH is so that I can start slow (self-managing) and work my way up to a modest but sizeable passive income stream, mostly made up of houses that I've previously lived in.

I was wondering from all of you if its common to simply buy a home as a residence, live in it for a bit, and then move/size-up while making the previous one a rental. My concerns for Austin are cash-flow of course, but I plan to talk to a RE agent to see the potential for buying a residence that would make a good rental after living in it for 3-5yrs (rents may rise during that time). My other concern is that I don't want another fulltime job, so I see this as a way to mitigate the stress of learning about a new property (I've already lived in it!) and actively managing it day-to-day (only have to worry about one family, and they would likely fit my fiancée and I's renter characteristics if they are renting a home that we initially wanted to live in)

Sorry for the long post, all ideas are welcome.

[Ajeet Baath]

Originally posted by @Jordan Moorhead:

@Ajeet Baath this is a great idea and similar to what I do, although I try to do it with properties that have 2 or more units. I think you'll find property management to be really easy when you use the right tools and set up systems! If you'd like to talk about it more I'm always up to grab coffee and talk investing!

Thanks, Jordan. I will keep that in mind. All I would be able to afford (maybe) is a duplex-- aren't duplexes difficult to find in Austin?