Finding buyers is the easiest part of the business, finding deals is the hardest.  

Can live in half, rent the other half.  

I pretty much still lived how I lived in undergrad and grad school (very frugally), and was able to pay it off in half a year.If you can refinance at a lower rate, say 2-4%, that's a good option too so you can leverage your cash in real estate investments that make 10% or more.

I'm pretty inexpensive (about half compared to typical small firms) because I also work full time as an attorney, and merely practice on the side to assist with my real estate deals and pay down law school debt (which is mortgage-sized), but I'm also very good (graduated with honors, guest lecturer, published papers, etc). 

Duplex is a great idea, live in half, rent half, save money, leverage that duplex for the next property, etc.  

In your case perhaps buying a multi family home living in half and renting out the other half wouldn't be to bad of an idea but I highly doubt you would need to live in a property for 3 years in order to rent it out .

The properties that sell in that area are going to people who basically overspend massively relative to the market (I know first hand of a couple of properties that have had 5M put into them but will never sell for more than half of that right now), particularly if they are looking at a property like this one which would require a great deal of money to restore to it's historical grandeur (what people are doing there).

I probably auction about half of the properties I sell.

Hi everyone,So I've been a Realtor for the past year and a half with fluctuating income.

My story begins in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti where I was born and raised for the first half my childhood.