Seeking Investment Strategy for a Traveling Medical Professional

[Jesse Golden]

I am a recent graduate, who just landed his first real job outside of serving/bartending. I currently make about 75k a year, however, I anticipate making closer to 140k a year by mid to end of next year (new graduates start low with little experience). I have thought about getting into real estate for awhile now, but my dreams are becoming more of a reality as I am now able to save money, for what feels like the first time in my life. By next summer, I plan on picking up travel positions, which pay substantially more, and include living and dining stipends. The position contracts are typically 13-weeks long, and I can either line the positions up back-to-back, or take a month or so off between contracts.

I think that this type of work creates a unique opportunity with real estate and I am just curious as to what ideas people have for the types of mortgages I should look into, strategies for managing rental properties out of state or intermittently, or any other ideas or approaches I should look into. 

The area I am interest in getting started in is mostly single-family homes, with respectable duplexes and triplexes few and far. 

One idea I am thinking about, just to get my foot in the door, would be to buy a house with an FHA loan, set it as my place of residence, get some roommates, and have them live there, while I travel for work. Potentially I would keep a room open for my return home visits and kind of use it as a "home base". How long would I have to call this place my residence? and would I eventually be able to not call it my place of residence and use it just as a rental property with this loan? Could I repeat that process, of getting FHA loans by calling the house my place of residence for a fixed time and then converting it to a rental? and what would that process of converting to solely a rental look like?

Any and all ideas are welcome.

Thanks!