That said, there are specific contractors who like working with investors since they can avoid the hassle of working on occupied homes.

Owner occ developments there is no value associated to the income approach so these props generally speaking will appreciate a lot more as the neighborhoods are much more desirable. builders the last thing they want to do is sell to investors if they are creating owner occupied communities.. rentals degrade the neighborhood and they will be sabotaging their own values to allow a bunch of investors to buy and rent out in their communities.So when you buy new builds keep in mind if its a build to rent community they will NOT appreciate like owner occupied neighborhoods.. might be best to find something already 3 to 5 years old where the stigma of renters dies down.. that would be best to protect your investment.

Your job is in Dallas, you are owner occupied?

I also know from experience that if you have damages from frozen pipes the insurance co. will try to 1) verify that the property was occupied and 2) verify that the heat was turned on ( for example they could request a copy of the heating bill).

Get a HELOC, which is possible but more difficult to find on a rental property, and is much easier and cheaper for an owner occupied property.

As others have said, this is the best way to get started because you can get much better financing when the property is owner occupied.

@Sam HendricksenMultifamily is super competitive in this area and you have a huge advantage over your "competition" with the fact that you are owner occupying as most deals nowadays hardly cash flow. 

All together the units bring over $8k in gross monthly rent and we have no trouble keeping them occupied other that an annual turnover month.  

This is the risk of buying a property in foreclosure that is occupied.

To be honest, I´m in the Maintenance & Construction for corporate businesses for some US companies in Mexico and we do some Real Estate down here also, but it´s way much different than the US, so I have much to learn from a lot of people around here and as @Julio Gonzalez, I think this is pretty much the right pad and place to start and to break my fears to start all over again from scratchAlso, I´ld like to hear more from @Justin Brickman why he voted for his city, pros and cons, it will help to read from a local...As I said before, thank you all guys for taking the time to write in this post and share some experienceDo you plan to owner occupy. $40k will not get you a non owner occupied San Diego property unless you find some unlikely alternate financing.