My first home ever : A duplex!

[Account Closed]

After the first 3 years of marital bliss inside a 394 square foot apartment, we were ready for more space. My wife wanted a backyard with green grass "for the dogs and kids" (neither of which we had) and I wanted a rental property.

We both agreed on our first home purchase; a duplex with 5% down FHA financing. After moving in, we finally had our own backyard (the tenants sometimes use it) and we now have tenants helping us make our mortgage payments.

Tenant nightmares? A total of 30 minutes over the past 6 months. I had to re-install some sliding windows after removing their window AC unit. We also pay them $50/month to handle all of the mowing and  snow removal. Sometimes they get paid for doing no work, other times they have to do a lot of work to earn the $50. If they decide to not do the necessary work, we don't pay them.

Our next property will be either a $60k-$80k rental or a Single Family home for ourselves and we'll simply find tenants for our current half of the duplex. Either way, we're not selling our first home (I call it our first rental), we're getting a Labradoodle puppy in April, and the first kids will probably arrive Spring 2017. 

Life is good.

Do you know anyone else who bought a duplex for a first home?