New member from Seattle area

[Loren Thomas]

Hello!

I've been lurking here for a couple weeks, nearest I can figure BiggerPockets looks to be a huge resource in so many different ways. Great, great website with so many knowledgeable people. I came across the podcast before the website, I've listened to about half the podcasts since last week. It's been very insightful and answered so many questions I didn't know I had.

I was self-employed from 2009 to 2013. I learned a lot of things in that period. Ultimately, the unstable income became too much and I went back to work for "the man".

My wife works for a large health insurance company, and I work for a larger electrical contractor. We have a 9 year old son, and another boy due in November. We currently own (mortgage) the house we live in. Lake Stevens, Washington (Snohomish County).

Sometime in the next year we are looking to buy our first rental property for long term financial benefits. We both have good paying jobs, so we won't be relying on our investments to pay our monthly expenses. The criteria we are looking at is under 175K (150K ideally), looking at single family and condos, but would really like a duplex or even triplex. I like the idea of multi-family mostly because you aren't losing all the property's income if someone moves.

We're still forming our business plan, taking our time with it to allow us to plan properly and get as much information before we jump.

One question I haven't found an answer to is this: 2% rule. Let's pretend our house is worth 250k, when we move, we should be looking for $5,000/mo? That's insane. I must be missing something here. Even at 1%, $2,500/mo is still a little more than it could be rented for. What am I missing?