Newbie questions - deal analysis, mortgages, airbnb, mfg homes

[Christopher Benjamin]

Hello everyone-

I've been eating up the podcasts and blog posts regularly for the last 3 months, learning a ton, but now finally jumping into participating in the community. What a cool resource this is – thanks to anyone willing to help!

My situation is a bit unique and I'd love some guidance as I look to consider entering into real estate investing. I'm married, 32, live in Portland, OR where we bought a home in 2015. My wife and I both work in medicine and we make a good living. I work on the Oregon coast and spend half the week out there. After renting a place near my work regularly for years, I now regret waiting so long to buy where I'm working. Main reasons it seems to make sense: (1) we are in 33% tax bracket and would benefit from the tax deductions, (2) I am paying $500 monthly in rent that I can get back immediately with a house hack, (3) with a buy-and-hold approach, I think there is good appreciation potential for coast near Portland, and (4) there is large demand for rentals in the community with no supply.

A few questions:

1. I know the 2% rule is a goal not a standard but all the properties I’m looking at would get me right about 1%. I guess I’m curious if this is a reasonable thing for a first-timer or if I really should do more work to find a better deal (although I’m not remotely interested in common marketing strategies like sending out fliers).

2. One consideration is to get a two bedroom, get a tenant in one room, live in the other, but also airBnB my bedroom when I'm not there. Anyone else do mixed use rentals like this?

3. Finally, there are a lot of manufactured homes in my market. There are a couple I've been looking at but they are 35 years old and a contracting friend told me I might be biting off more problems than I might expect.  Would welcome anyone's 2-cents on this.

Thanks so much to anyone willing to help.

Chris