help narrowing down a path...NY-NJ-PA....out of state?

[Andre Fierro]

Hey BP family,

I am currently in the getting educated phase of investing but I just feel like time is against me and want to kind jump in a deal asap. I have FICO score of 750 and about 30K of savings. Before joining the community I was in the process of looking for a home for me and my family. We currently rent a 2 BR apt in Queens and the rent is not cheap here as we all know. I connected with a loan officer who was able to get me approved for only about 275k which might not be too bad in other states but here that is not much, in fact the homes that attracted us where in the 350k + area. After speaking loan officer she mentioned to me that I can get more money loaned if I found a home with a separate dwelling/ kitchen etc, this is what kind opened up my eyes into looking into multifamily homes (besides this forum of course).

Now I am still renting and it burns me to know I can easily be putting my money to good use if I took a different route. The dilemma I have is where (location) to start and what niche/approach to take?. House hack?, live on site and rent in a multi fam?, 1 fam home to just rent? or out of state rental ? I would ideally love to take advantage all the programs offered to 1st time buyers such as FHA, 203k, etc.

Ideally what I would very much like is a multifamily the one concern I have is do I need to reside at the place? I ask because this might not always work because lets say I find a good deal in a area where 1. We do not like. In the sense of schools amenities etc. 2. Distance. Far from our jobs etc.This things will prevent us from residing at the place but have seen good deals in slightly father market such as NJ,PA even Upstate NY, but the NYC area forget it I am lucky to find a multifam that can go for less than 600k if that!.

House hacking- Don't think I can pursue this style since I have a family or 3.

SFH- Might work if I am required to reside at the home since I can just use it for solely that a 1 family rental.

Out State-Could work since we like to occasionally vacation in places such as Florida,The Carolina's etc. Any place  south from NY are can work. Can maybe be used as a Air BNB or something similar. 

I am currently having kind of a hard time narrowing down what style/approach to take and that is why I am reaching out to you experienced investors to kind of steer me in the right direction.  Thanks in advance guys, look forward to hearing from you guys.