Should I Buy A Dallas Duplex or SFH?

[Sean Ray]

The Dallas market hasn't reached its peak of the cycle but I do know it is closer to the top than the bottom. Should I buy and move into a duplex, fix it up and rent out one side (like the ones in Bishop Arts) for $300k? Or Buy a Single Family Home for under $300k (like over in the White Rock area) and ride the appreciation. Then move in two years for the $250k capital gains break and rent it out then? Down side of option two is that it pushes back my first renter goal by two+ years from now. What makes the most sense financially? If I do option one then when the bell curve goes down I can use the cash flow to buy a bunch of SFH at their lowest. Or is Dallas not even close to its peak with all of these new companies moving in?

[Andrew Herrig]

@Sean Ray I would agree DFW is closer to a peak than a trough. Personally, if I was going to buy a single family home to live in and then turn into a rental down the road, I would want it to be a good rental property now. A $300k house in East Dallas may be a nice house and may appreciate (I wouldn't count on the gains we've seen the last few years), but it would certainly not cash flow as a rental.