It's going to be more about your confidence in the market that you can afford than anything else, so the primary thing is to look up a few areas you might be able to afford and then look for someone local that can hop on a call to give you an idea about what investing there is like. 

Hi Paola,If you are looking to buy another primary, looking to put the property into a LLC, may be changes in your income/job, looking for faster/smoother closing, DSCR could make more sense.

A lot of times the investment property is their former primary residence. 2.

I have to decide if im going to use a new injection of capital from the sale of my primary residence to:1) Hold in treasury bills at 4.5 percent until I find another property to purchase2) Pay off one of two existing mortgages, one at 3.75 percent and another at 4.5 percent3) Just find something to buy that beats either of those percentages on paper and be done with it4) Possibly loan out some hard money/broker it to a friend to allocateIts never an easy decision, but its a good problem to have.

If you have not flipped a home, do not have a rental property, and do not own a primary residence, you may have a hard time getting into lending.

If you are buying a primary then you will not necessarily be able to utilize the LLC for this property.

We're interested in a primary residence home purchase using a RE attorney and hiring a buyer's RE on an hourly basis.

I of course want to start small.My dilemma is: I was approved through work to get a forgivable $12,500 down payment assistance on a "primary home" near where I work.

I think I'm just not understanding what sort of realtor would be willing to help do something like this because I assume most realtors are used to finding you a move-in ready primary home and that's really what they know, and that the price needs to be a certain level to get a worthwhile commission.

I'd highly recommend getting a primary residence first or house hacking.