First Time Homebuyer From Connecticut

[Robert Jeffrey]

Hello, nice to meet you all!

Call me Rob. I've been renting a room from a friend for the past few years but I've finally decided to venture out on my own and buy my first property.

I would like to take this opportunity to start my journey in real estate investment, but I'm having trouble deciding what my best course of action would be.

At first I was considering purchasing a home with more rooms than I need and renting them out to friends. After doing some research it seems like a more sustainable approach would be to buy a multifamily and rent out units. Another option I would consider would be to buy a house in a college town, of which there are a few good ones around, and then rent to students.

What's making this decision difficult is that the multifamily houses in this state are mostly in areas that I don't really want to live in. There are some very attractive single family homes in beautiful areas here. If I could make the numbers work on a nice single family home then my quality of life, at least while I'm starting out, would be higher.

I guess my question is if the cash flow of multifamily units is actually higher and easier to obtain than with rooms in a single family, while owner occupying?

If it makes a difference at this point, I'm still waiting for my mortgage pre-approval guy to get back to me, but I think my max will be about 200K, and I will probably be getting a CHFA zero-down loan because I have very little money saved.

Thanks in advance. I look forward to a beautiful and productive relationship with the BP community!

- Rob