Any advice on my first home purchase ?

[Kareem Lyons]

Hello, 

This will be my first post on this forum , I want to give a brief rundown of my situation. I have 9k saved up and I just got approved for up to 100k FHA loan through my credit union with 3% down. My goal was to get approved for a loan and purchase a nice home around 50-80k and rent it out to my mother. I figured this would be a good way to get my feet wet with investing and learning the ropes. After looking around for a while I noticed there arnt very many nice homes ( 3bd,1.5bh, etv ) in my city, From what I can see it seems the the sweet spot is around 130k.

I reached out to my lender about other options, I know they do investment loans but I know the down payment will be high probably. I didn't get approved for a conventional loan probably due to the down payment required. Also I really want to use this as a investment home but I'm not sure if I can tell my lender that. I dont think they will fund a FHA loan if I plan to rent it out. My way to work around that was to purchase the home and stay in it for about a year while having my mother stay with me an paying rent. After the 12 month I would move out and let her take over the house from there.

So I have a couple questions I need help with. should I just purchase the best home I can find for the amount and follow the original plan?. Should I hold off and save up more money for a higher down payment ?. Should I save up and buy with cash ( longer time required plan) ?.