Good first time starter property

[Joe B.]

Hello BP family,

Ive been studying and reading nonstop on REI. Property in my area is rather affordable compared to other place and Wilmington is growing. Now, in a few months after saving a bit more my goal is to get my first place. Im currently living at home with my parents, but I do have a few options.

-Purchase a SFH with fha loan live in it, and rent out the other rooms. This would allow me to move out, experience RE first hand and hopefully make some money out of it

-Purchase a vacation condo. This one is totally random, but a neighbor of mine has a vacation condo and is netting about 10k annually. This condo is in the 160-180k range and my father would most likely go in 50% with me on this since it has a property management company that does pretty much everything; so its appealing to him. (Hes a retired guy, so hes not looking to be a landlord anymore)

-Purchase a duplex. Id use a fha loan, live in one side and rent out the other. 

What are your thoughts? After listening to numerous BP podcasts, they always say that its easy after you do it the first time as are other things :p.. 

Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks!

[Thomas S.]

If your intention is basically to house hack don't waste your time starting with a SFH. They usually make for poor stand alone rentals, they are not purpose built, have high maintenance costs per tenant and usually have poor cash flow. Start with a 3-5 plex and move on from there.

If you want to invest in rentals, invest in rentals not sfh personal homes.