Fist time home buyer and landlord, need advice

[Kara Leboeuf]

Hey all, this is my first post on BP. It has been a wealth of info so far, so I figured I would ask for your input about my possible first time home purchase and becoming a landlord all at once!

Here's the situation. I found a 3 unit muti fam home for 129k. In my local city. The rents are all low for the area, all are around $500 a month but could be rented for 650 each with minor updating. The two tenants that would live in the other units have been there for 3 and 5 years. I have met them, the seem like great people. I would owner occupy the 3rd unit. The tenants would cover the mortgage with no money left over if I left the rents as is, but if I raised them to fair market value after doing minor repairs ($1-2k) then I would live in the house for free and have about $200 left over from collected rent.

This seems like a good investment to me. I don't plan on spending many more years in this town, but if I do move I figured I could fix up the units raise the rent and net 200-300 positive cash flow when I decide to move out.

Btw I'm useing a FHA loan for the property.

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated seeing as how this is my first time buying a house as well as starting my investment portfolio, Thanks!