Need some advice

[Khouri Rice]

Hello BP, I am looking for some advice, I am a little stuck as to what my best course of action for my first purchase might be...(my long term goal is to build a portfolio of buy and hold rentals, while doing a few flips along the way), but I live in MA and real estate prices here are pricey so my options are somewhat limited for my first purchase. Also, I want my first property to be an owner occupied investment, so I can stop paying rent where I am at now, and start building equity. Option 1. Buy a 2 family (in pretty good shape) for $345,000 (will be appraised at around $375,000) in a great town with excellent schools and a great neighborhood, rent the bottom unit out (1200/mo) and pay the difference (which is a little less than I am currently paying in rent) or Buy a foreclosed single family home that needs a lot of work, mostly aesthetics, nothing major (I run a contracting business on the side, so labor is pretty cheap for me)for $300,000, which will most likely be around the upper $400Ks-low $500Ks when I'm done with it. So in this case I would carry the mortgage all on my own but after a year I would have about $125K-150K in equity to really start getting into real estate investing with. I am open to both and realize that I will have to pay a good amount out of pocket for both (typical where I live in MA) but am not sure which is my best route....any advice is much appreciated.