First Rental Property - Where to Buy?

[Jason Wade]

So I am looking for my first rental property in Philadelphia. I currently live in NJ but my girlfriend lives in philly and I've moved back and forth from the city for a few times now. I'm finally ready to buy and get into real estate. So I'm looking to use the FHA house-hack strategy where I live in a unit and rent the other(s) out, livd in it for a year and rent it out completely.

If you were in this situation where would you look to buy? And where would you look to buy regardless if it was not going to be a house-hack scenario?

[Sarah Gabriel]

My first question would be what kind of budget you're working with, and then how realistic the location would be to whatever you need to do in your daily life (like get to work). I have heard a lot of people finding good opportunities near the universities (like Temple) to do something like this since there are always going to be renters looking in those areas. We have not lived in any of our rentals but own a few multifamily units in the city. We have had luck in the West Oak Lane area in terms of finding decent properties as well as decent renters. Good luck :)