Young Newbie from Philadelphia area seeking all of your wisdom

[Daniel Bowden]

Hi everyone, my name is Daniel. I'm 22 years old and I just graduated college and now have a full time job which earns me about $60k a year which I hope will be enough to get me started in investing. I have about $20k saved up for a down-payment if necessary, although I've read that I can get an FHA loan that lets me pay only 3.5% down. I still live at home rent free and can continue to do so for another year. I'm currently planning my next step which I was hoping everyone could help me with.

I would like to preface by saying I read the beginners guide and chose my investment strategy. I want to invest in a multi-family home, preferably a duplex to start out with. My goal would be to buy one near where I live currently/near where I work, and live in it while renting the other side out simultaneously. Ideally I would like to get a roommate so I could live rent free. After living here for a while, I would like to move into a single family home while renting out both sides of the duplex. I'm not sure if I could gain enough cash flow from that to pay my mortgage on another home, but I would like to do that if possible.

I am very new to real estate investment, but I'm very motivated, and this is the direction I would like to move in. My hope is that in the future I will own my home completely, as well as a vacation home on a lake, and I would like to do this at a younger age.

Some questions I have are:

1. I really dislike cities which seem to be the areas with an abundance of duplexes, but considering I want to live in the duplex I would prefer to find one outside of the city. Is getting enough rent to generate cash-flow more difficult in non-city areas?

2. When shopping for a multifamily home, what are some questions you ask right away to the seller?

3. What type of qualities in a potential multifamily home get you excited/interested as an investor?

4. What type of expenses do owners typically expect tenants to pay while living there? I've read that they typically pay utilities like heat and garbage, but a lot of people mention that they themselves pay the water bill and sewage bills which can get expensive.

5. I read about the 2% rule, is this realistic? Should I consider a home a bad investment if I cannot achieve at least 2%?

These are just a few questions I have that I can think of right now. As I said, I am a beginner seeking knowledge, and this forum seems to be full of it. Please feel free to shoot me down or correct me anywhere that I may have been out of line. I'm sure my goals will reflect how green I am.

Thank you so much for your time and any help!