Buying a SFR now so you can live in it yourself later

[Derek Luttrell]

Hi All,

My goal is to have 10 properties at age 30 (I am 26 with 4 properties so far). Once that happens, I plan to move to my favorite lake town in Indiana, where my longtime girlfriend's parents currently own a lake house that they renovated completely by themselves. Her parents will soon retire and live on the lake full time, so living in that town as well would offer free child care, which would be huge. I don't have any kids now, but I'd imagine I will start right around age 30. Kids or not, we would just love to live at the lake, because it's our favorite place to be.

My question is, has anyone ever bought a property now for the sake of living in it yourself later, even if it wasn't the greatest deal as a rental? Here are the details:

Asking: $125,000 (again, this is an Indiana lake town, population under 10,000. Not directly on the lake, but a bike ride away from her parents' lake house).

3 bed/2 bath with finished basement

20% down

PITI: $675

Potential Rent: $1,100

I wouldn't ever really do a deal with these numbers solely as a SFR, but is there value in securing inventory now to have it for yourself down the line? Having a property in the place I want to move to in a few years is also organic motivation to keep chasing the dream, I think.