New to Real Estate Investing, Need Help

[Dylan NA]

Hows it going everyone, first off I would like to say that I am completely new to real estate investing and I have come here for help. 
Some basic things about me:

- I am 22 years old

- I am a 4th year electrician in the oilfield and am 3 months away from being a fully pledged journeyman. I am not doing this as a fulltime job though because I hate it, so I will be doing a trade in painting. I will make 20 dollars an hour starting off as a painter. I also will be moving to a bigger city for more opportunities since I live in a small town.

- I currently have 150,000 saved up from working

Question 1:  How should I go about buying my first property?

I live in Alberta so a 5 bedroom house goes for at least 275,000-350,000 and it will be a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom. I also looked and half duplexes go for 250,000-275,00, these will have 4 bedroom and 2 bathroom. 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom on top and 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom on bottom I believe.

I have 150,000 saved up so I was thinking of buying 3 houses for 275,000 these would have 5 bedrooms in it.  Or I was thinking of buying 3 half duplexes.

I also will not be managing any of these properties I want to go strictly to a property manager and have them manage them for me, yes I know they will take around 8-10% of the gross income, but I am okay with that as long as I have to do no work and don't have to look after anything. The reason isn't because I am lazy but because I want to work as well and have more positive cash flow, would be extremely hard to manage it and work 80-100 hours every weeks. So ya what should I buy half duplexes or single family home? thank you

Another question I have is this: If I buy a 5bedroom house, would the property manager rent each room out to different people or would they simply just charge a family say 1,500 or 2,000 to live in it a month? this is what I am concerned about, because if they rent each room out, they could charge at least 700-800 dollars because that's why the going rate is, but if they wont charge each room out for say privacy reason or safety reasons, than I would be better going with the half duplexes at 250,000 because than I could have 2 people rent the top and 2 rent the bottom and charge 1200 dollars for the 2 people on the top and 1200 dollars for the 2 people on the bottom.

Just curiousm I know each property manager is different, but what do you think would be the best thing to buy a half a duplex or a single family home?

And how much cash flow do you guys honestly think I could make a month from each. Thank you for reading this, I know I am a complete beginner to real estate investing but this has been my goal for the past 2 years and I finally want to do it, thank you so much everyone, please point me in the right direction:)

[Ram Srinivasan]

@Dylan NA

Dylan "Something" - I am assuming this isn't your last name. I would think most would agree that having a last name like "something" sounds a little foolish on these forums. Most people have put in real last names to give an aura of authenticity.. just friendly advice.

There are so many ways of doing this, but based on your situation, I assume you are able to qualify for a mortgage. By the sounds of it, the downpayment isn't a problem.

Do you consider yourself "handy"? on other tools in addition to being an electrician?

If so, I would say a live in flip would be the way to go for you. OR, purchase a house 5% down. live in one room and rent the other rooms. Do this for a year, let others pay for your mortgage as you gain experience. Renting by the room can usually fetch you more also. In the mean time, you can do certain things like upgrade bathrooms, paint other areas of the house that the tenants are not living in etc. 

Alternatively, you can get a double suite (quite possible to get in Edmonton). Live in one suite and rent out the second.