First time investor needing advice

[Isaiah Fariel]

I'm a new investor looking to purchase my first home, we currently live in Raleigh NC. My fiancee and I have about 10k saved up and want to purchase a Duplex and do a house hack. We want to invest in hopefully the Raleigh/Durham area but have been told by multiple people that is a very slim chance we don't mind going outside of this area if that means we can get a duplex. Our goal is to live in the duplex rent out the other half and within a year or two purchase second and a third and so on for homes. We will most likely do a FHA loan but are kind of lost as to the smartest path moving forward. We have between now and late fall to get everything together. Any tips that people might have regarding first home purchases especially house hacking multi family would be wonderful.

Thanks in Advance

-Isaiah

[Joseph Gisler]

@Isaiah Fariel hi!! First, congrats to you and your fiancé on getting engaged, exciting times!! I just closed on my very first house hack in the Raleigh area (Garner) back in November! With around $10,000, it will be very hard for you and your fiancé to find a duplex, triplex or quad to buy in the area, at least on the MLS! What I did and highly recommend is find a single family house with a walkout basement and then renovate that basement to be a studio apartment. You can then either live upstairs in the house and rent out the basement or visa versa!

For example, my house is a 3bed 2bath upstairs with an unfinished basement that leads to the backyard. I have rented out two of the rooms to my college buddies who are paying my mortgage, taxes, insurance, and we are splitting utilities. Now, I am renovating the basement to be separate from the rest of the house (walled off and adding their own bathroom). Next I am going to put a hot plate and some other kitchen amenities and try to rent it out on AirBnB for additional income, they have their own separate entrance, bathroom, etc. but it’s a single family home! There are plenty of homes in the area like this, a lot of them with unfinished basements which means instant added value, you just need to save the money to do the renovations!

Message me if you have questions, I would love to talk more about it! Best of luck!