Talk to the home inspector ahead of time, ensure they are unbiased and will provide supplemental photos/videos of the property.

Checkr accesses multiple data sources, including national criminal databases with millions of records, courthouses across all 3,200 counties in the United States, state sex offender registries, the Federal Court PACER system, and state Department of Motor Vehicles.

It's weird.ya know maybe they ( millennials ) read the articles  … and think they should rent.. and I do know that homeownership East of the Mississippi in general is not coveted as much as on the coasts .. were even here in Portlandia Millennials buy most of the starter housing.. but they also buy condo's down town and rent.. but agreed.. first thing anyone should do in IMHO is buy them selves a home if they plan on living in a community any length of time. and in lower priced areas go ahead and buy it anyway.. get in for the lower down and better interest and if you move wa la you have a rental already bought.. paying rent is a fools errand..   

Our savings rate is high but we haven't bought a permanent residence yet.. 1. because our rent is so cheap 2. because we are weighing the options of purchasing a multi-family apartment or something similar 3. because we are a little bit scared of the process.Should we start by purchasing ourselves a home, live in it, fix it up and put it on the rental market or go ahead and start looking for a multi-family unit to purchase with the possibility of living in one of the units & using an FHA 203k loan? 

I am most comfortable with SFR but am intrigued by a duplex to quad unit, but at the same time they worry me if I ever had to get out quickly and quality of tenant potential.So my thoughts on my options are:--Take out both HELOC's and 401k loans and sit on that cash in a money market or similar vehicle along with what I have already to wait for the crash (whenever it arrives), using my personal and rental cash flow and redirecting the extra I'm paying on those existing mortgages to pay off the HELOC and loans quickly--Use my HELOC and stockpiled cash today to go into another, cheaper market somewhere else in the US, and buy up 3-8 more properties, either leveraged or outright. 

On top of this, it is a very walkable city with great parks and access to water (Hudson River or Newark Bay) and a cruise line.As a heads up, Bayonne will be going through a tax revaluation shortly.

I skipped ahead a few posts and missed you saying you were an agent as well.

My experience is that the investor class homes sell at a second lower tier of pricing.All that said, if you really want to increase the value of my homes, go ahead and buy for $120k, 😜 but I personally would look for a better deal - they are getting much harder to find in Normal Station but still come up from time to time.

It is good that you are able to save a lot but I think you are saving in the wrong vehicles.

You will struggle to find time to get your vehicle inspected.