Multi family or single family

[Luke Ferrara]

Hello,

I am a new member and trying to learn as much as I can. My wife and I live in Salt Lake City, I am an Electrician and she is a Dental Assistant. I have been learning and listening to real estate books the last couple months as our lease ends in November and I want to get into investing. We both are very handy people and aren't afraid of a fixer upper. I am unsure if it would make more sense to get a multi family unit and live in one and rent out the others or to get a single family home. We would be using a FHA loan as we have some saved up but not near enough for 20%. My idea was to get a single family home and fix it up then re appraise it. Then use the new equity to invest into a rental property possibly. The numbers here in salt lake just don't make sense with a multi family unless you already have a lot of capital. Curious if anyone had input or ideas?