Newbie military investor needs advice on next move

[Ashleigh Evans]

I'm moving to Mayport next month, and instead of renting an apartment I've been researching duplexes in the area that I could reside in while renting out the other. Multi-family homes seem to be scarce in the area, with the few available being over $100K. My initial plan was to either cash out refinance a home that I have in Atlanta to buy a MF property in Mayport,  but now I'm thinking about just getting an apartment. Key facts:

1) the property in Atlanta is a tax lien that I'll be finished rehabbing at the end of this month. I can't sell it until next month.

2) I haven't gotten the property appraised yet, but I'm guessing it'll appraise between 80-100K. 

3) I've never had an investor, and I'm not sure if this would be the type of situation in which you would use one. 

If I sold the house in Atlanta, would it be able to quality as a tax deferment? If I have to be in Mayport next month, would it be wiser to rent somewhere?

Help????

[Matthew Rollo]

Sounds to me like you are in the Navy. I did 4 years in Mayport as well on a ship that is now decommed. Live on the ship for free or get a barracks for free until you are able to sell yourproperty in ATL. 

Learn about Jax before investing because you will come to find out that a lot of the areas are crap locations. You will definitely not want to buy anything over the bridge into downtown. When I was first in Jax it was called the murder capital of america. 

Stay closer to the beach side and you should be alright though. Lot of military rent places there but the turnover rate is high since a lot of them either get deployed or stationed somewhere else.