I Can't Find any Duplexes

[Jeffrey Palma]

Guys, I've been looking for a duplex for about 4 months in the south Jersey area, and every time I make an offer somebody else offers more money and gets the house. It's been hard especially because I'm dealing with an FHA loan and some sellers don't wanna anything to do with this type of loan.

My plan is to buy a duplex using an FHA loan with 3.5% down and live in one unit and rent out the other one(basically househacking), but with this crazy market, it's been very challenging to find anything good. At this point, I don't know if I should continue looking or go for a conventional loan and buy a cheap SFH live there for a year, move out and rent it, but that would mean that I have to pay the mortgage for a whole year and that would prevent me from saving as much as possible for the next investment.

Basically, my plan is to create a new source of additional income and I believe real estate is a good way to achieve that. I'm 26 and get around 60k from my job, I have a roth IRA where I invest around 5200 every year and in my 401k I invest 3% of my income(company match) and I also have around 25k in a saving account. I just don't want all of my savings sitting in a bank account, I want to invest my money to have a more comfortable life in the future. Do you guys think I should go ahead and get into real estate or should I invest my money somewhere else?

Thanks!