I live in NY, looking to get started here and I see properties being fixed up all the time.

I live in a town of 128k only, in Abilene, TX.  

Some advice:If you are going to live there make sure you spend a lot of time down there first if you haven't already.Bank financing is impossible for non residents/citizens. 

Preferably within driving distance, but I live close to the SC/NC border anyway.

My question is, to finance my first property, should I finance it under an FHA and live in one of the units for the year?

@Michael Frank I live in Northern Virginia and built my prefab home in 2017.

PM me, I live here and happy to discuss.

But if you’re not doing it every day, and haven’t done lots of transactions, and aren’t intimately familiar with the local market on a house by house level, then you couldn’t possibly know as much about things to avoid and best practices etc. as someone who does it every day for a living and has done lots of transactions.

I'm not in Oakland right now (wish there was a general "Bay Area" category) but would like to find a 2, 3, or 4- plex that I can live in and rent out either in Oakland or elsewhere in the bay area. 

I know there are a BUNCH of out-of-state STR/MTR PMs that will manage properties remotely and I'm definitely not looking for anyone non-local.Hi Kimberly, I have both and live outside of Canton.