A little about me and also a FHA question

[Robert Swingle]

Hello,

I have been a member of this site for a few months and have never posted anything. I have just been lurking. I would love to buy a rental (a duplex or more) for my first home as my family is accustom to living  in apartments. I have a background in construction and apartment maintenance and my wife in apartment management so I would fix/maintain my own property and my wife manage the tenants. I currently am a truck driver for the oil fields here in Pennsylvania and make on avg 4000 take home per month and my monthly expenses are 1300 for bills not including food and other expenses for children and personal. I have neglected my credit for many years and for the past year I have been working on fixing it/paying items off while trying to save. Should I attempt to pay off more of my debt before I attempt to purchase something? I only have 2k in my savings account because I dump my extra on credit card balances and paying extra principal on other loans and put a little into savings. I was looking at FHA loans, but they seem pretty strict on guidelines and the duplexes i have been looking at online are very low price and I'm worried they wont pass the home inspection to qualify. If i contact a selling agent and simply ask if it will pass a FHA inspection would they tell me?I really don't want to waste my time or there time looking at the home and trying to get approved with a loan on that property and paying for an inspection just for it to fail. There are many forums on here and ive used the search function, but am having issues finding the exact same questions i have so i decided to post instead. 

Sorry this is so long and if you do read or reply, thank you for your time.