Ideas on using property management. Newbie on first property

[Michael Randell]

Hello guys, 

Just a quick question, looking to see what more experienced opinions are on this...I'm doing all my research at the moment before stepping into real estate investing with a full time job (40-45 hours a week). 

I plan to owner occupy and I was originally looking at duplexes and figured that I will definitely be able to handle one tenant and understand that this will be a great learning experience going this route but I lean towards valuing my time (as we all do..) so lately I have been thinking about another option. That being, buying a 4-plex which will have the potential to bring in more cash flow to offset the costs of hiring a property management company. 

The way that I'm looking at this right now is that I'm looking at multifamily investing as my long term investing strategy. So assuming I will be buying more properties in the future, I will eventually be hiring a property management company anyways. Why not go with property management right from the get go?

Any advice would be appreciated very much, thank you!