Hopatcong NJ for family’s future?

[Ryan Allen]

So, my plan to start out in investing was to invest where I currently live in the Bloomfield NJ area in a multi family house and house hack for a couple years. Those couple years, I’d be putting money away for a single family home and move out of the multi family. Then id rent the unit that I previously lived in.

From there I’d go on to live in that single family and build the RE portfolio.

However, it seems like this year especially, the cost for multi family houses in the Bloomfield area have skyrocketed and I can no longer get started in October as planned.

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to skip the multi family house in this area, and move out to a cheap area of NJ with a mortgage way under budget, and then use the extra wiggle room I have in the budget to put money away for REI.

The Lake Hopatcong area seems incredibly affordable and not too far out of the way. What am I missing about that area? I’ve seen some people complain about a heroin problem on other forums, but that doesn’t scare me too much.