Next Steps for a house hacker.

[Joey Clowery]

Hello all! This will be my second post on BP, and since my first post I've been able to purchase a Duplex which my Fiancé and I occupy while renting out the other unit. This has been great thus far, and as such has been making me think about what our next steps will be. I'm looking for any opinions or experiences you all have had with this, so fee free to chime in. My first thought is to live in this duplex for a couple of years, and after that to sell the duplex and use a 1031 to use the capital gains on the sale towards the down payment of the next property which would be a quad. Also, this would allow for me to utilize the FHA loan again, and I would still have the option to utilize a conventional loan if I was in a position to do so. My second thought would be to hold onto the Duplex as an investment property, and then buy the next property. I have two concerns with this approach being that it may be difficult to find financing being I'd already have a mortgage on the duplex. Also, the duplex was a good investment being that even if I were to move out it would cash flow positively after considering all expenses. However, it's not a great investment in my opinion being that it only would positively cash flow by around 75-100$ per unit. This is why my first thought is to move on per say from this first investment and utilize its proceeds towards the next investment being the quad. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any suggestions or feedback is definitely appreciated! Thanks, Joey