18 year old on whether to buy a duplex or house for house hacking

[Justin Chercoles]

I just turned 18 this weekend and would like to know how I should go about buying my first rental property which i will house hack for the first year or so. I have $15,000 saved up and will continue to save up. I have three question first one is should I wait to save up more money and wait for the market to potentially go down? Should I house hack a duplex or a house first? Should I use a FHA loan or a VA loan.

Also, here where I live in Florida the market is on the medium to high range and I will be using my family member to co sign for me since I don't have enough in my past two year income tax.

[Luka Milicevic]

@Justin Chercoles

.No one can tell you what you SHOULD do, we can only lay out pros/cons and then you decide.

Me personally....

I would shoot for a duplex instead of SFH. If you absolutely can't find one then SFH is fine for house hacking if you are ok w having roommates.

Wait to save money and the market potentially go down? How long would you wait? You could wait for the rest of time for the market to come down and it might never happen. Timing the market is a fools game. 

If you have 15k saved up and you have the option of a VA loan then I would start looking immediately for a house hack opportunity.

So to summarize, what I personally would do if I were in your shoes:

Duplex, if I can't find one: SFH

No, I would definitely not wait for anything

VA loan.