Take the plunge or wait?

[Kevin Reinhardt]

Hi everyone... looking for some advice and different perspectives here. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

I'm looking at purchasing my first rental property to buy and hold. I currently have enough saved to get into the condo market but most single family homes I can afford are generally in less desirable neighbourhoods.  I always thought I'd try to avoid condos as there is lower potential for the property to increase in value and condo fees eat into cash flow. With the high demand for homes in my city deals are hard to come by.

My question is would it be better to just dive into a condo and start paying down the principal and gaining experience etc... or is it worth waiting to have enough for a single family house?

For context a rental property requires %20 down payment here. Most condo's im looking at are approx 150k, most decent starter homes are 230-250k so I'm 20k off of having that down payment.