Looking to invest while looking for our own home

[Chase Nye]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some general advice as well as some Salt Lake City insight. My wife and I are moving to SLC this summer and hoping to find a place for ourselves as well as a buy-and-hold property. We will be in SLC for a minimum of three years and like the idea of converting our own place into a rental. We also have no problem doing some rehab, and hope to nudge our liability (our own place) as close to an investment as possible

My question is this: we have studied a bit about finding deals for rental properties that will cash flow, but should we apply those same strategies to our own home? Obviously, we will be considering different criteria when looking at neighborhoods. (schools, interests, hotspots, etc.) Now that we have narrowed our search to an area, should we be speaking with wholesalers, going to auctions, and working with a rock star agent to find these deals? Or should we stick to the path that non-investors take?

For some reason, my hunch is that those methods will only work when we are considering a home/neighborhood based on cash flow, and looking for money-maker prices. Do they work when we are focused on our own place? Or do our different standards render those methods less effective?

Hoping that someone can help us divide these two worlds that we are trying to navigate.

Thanks!