New Investor Analysis Questions

[Angelyn Avignon]

Hi everyone!

I am looking at purchasing my first investment property around Q3 of next year. I am leaning toward a house hack in a duplex and trying to figure out to do this. The goal for this investment would more cash flow focused with ideally a bit of appreciation as the secondary goal. I've looked around a little bit about where I'd like to move. Honestly I am not sure how to filter the data or which data I should be looking at when analyzing a deal. Can anyone help me figure out the right metrics I should be analyzing? Any tools I should look into for these metrics? Also what other questions should I be asking along these lines?

Thanks!!

[Benjamin Aaker]

Welcome to BP, Angelyn! 
My first bet of advise to you is to read Gary Keller's The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. This book has great information on how to evaluate deals and will tell you about the metrics you are asking. House hacking is a great way to get started. Can you buy a 4 plex instead? You get the same FHA benefit and have a better economy of scale renting 3 units instead of 1. You should be finding a good RE agent and banker right now. Save money for the down payment.