Condo and rental property vs. multifamily property

[Brian Tsang]

Hi All,

I am a new investor and have some money saved up that I like to deploy in real estate. I am currently renting and some friends suggest me to start off buying a multifamily property because 1) you get to use the FHA loan and 2) you get to manage your tenants at your fingertips and 3) diversify even if one of your units go vacant.

Before I was planning to buy 1) a condo and 2) a rental property. The condo is for myself and the rental property caters to students where I went to school. I was contemplating this approach because I am very familiar with the rental property area as many of my friends have lived there and I visited that area many times since I graduated (I still live in that city).

I understand it's difficult to analyze a situation given limited info but is there any obvious downside you see in my approach (e.g. need to take out two mortgages?)

Thanks so much for your help.