Duplex or House? I can't decide which is better for me

[Eric McAvoy]

Hey guys! I've got a question that I need your expertise on. 

So for my first ever property I've got 2 options. A duplex for 150k (15k down) with PITI at about $900 per month. One half is already rented for $813 and then I'd get a roommate for $300-400/month.

Option 2: get a house with an in-law suite. 5 Bedroom 3 bath. 20k down, PITI would be $1200 get roommates for the upper level to live with me $350-400/month (goal would be 3-4 roommates). I could sleep in a room or on the couch to free up another room to rent. Then I'd have the option of doing a monthly rent on the in-law suite or possibly doing an Air BnB. Most of the places on Air BnB that are similar go for $50-80/night.

I'm having a really tough decision on which option to go with with my main goal being to live for free and potentially produce some cashflow. 

[Antoine Martel]

I would get the duplex.

The reason why is because when you end up moving out of either one of these properties the duplex is the one that is going to make more sense long term because you can just rent out each unit and collect rent from each tenant.

If you have a single family home it is going to be much harder to rent the property out room by room and still cash flow. You'd need to just rent out that single family home to one family which may not make sense cash flow wise once you have left the property.