Assuming you live in the property this credit is a good way to decrease your taxes by 20%.

For all three of these, you need to take into account closing costs on the initial acquisition of the real estate, which will decrease the amount you can buy.

Also you will save money by "depreciating" half of the duplex, that's indirect money, but it saves you in taxes paid every year.Also, if you have the cash, try to leverage it and either flip smart alongside few buddies that know the game, though note flipping activity has slowed down across nation as inventory amount decreased and price increased.

It's a great way to get yourself started and give your family a decent return on Their money That Might Otherwise be sitting in a CD, a bond or decreasing in value in the stock market.

I also have an FHA loan, looking to decrease PMI and interest rate.

Option 1: I invest my money in 401k/IRA accounts, but it may be more difficult to extract that money in order to invest in real estateOption 2: I keep piling my money in my savings account and I have easy access to it when I need it; however, the value of my money is decreasing because I am losing to inflationOption 3: ???

We buy discounted properties that a lot of the time have unusable or very dated kitchens and bathrooms which decrease the value.  

Also, I'm not sure I'm following why your ROI with decrease the longer you stay in the home especially since you plan to rent the other house out.  

Make sure you reach out to some agents, check your local municipality business page to know any upcoming business coming in or closing down, research the market(employment, population:increasing/decreasing, etc) again all of this is available online. 

We know that we are dealing with the bank, and that they typically follow a pretty strict price decrease structure.