To Buy or Not to Buy

[Pat Muller]

I live in a HCOL area and there is a small two-family that is currently available to me for short period and I was in the market for a multi as my first purchase when COVID hit and the market went down the tubes. However, it is slightly out of my budget, like I would have to rely on the rental income to comfortably make the payments considering the payment and property taxes are about 80% of my income, although luckily I have a place to stay rent free if I had to rent out both. As stated it is a HCOL area in the north east and getting a tenant shouldn't be a problem and market rent would be about the mortgage payment + taxes, in fact they Air BnB'd it out this entire month since their buyer fell through. Nevertheless, even though I have a healthy E-Fund, I don't like the idea of having to rely on a tenant and/or tap into my savings whenever I do not have one, but I may not get this opportunity again, so I am really struggling as to whether I should take this risk.
Any insight of course, is greatly appreciated.