I also grew up in Cupertino and lived in Palo Alto Napa valley prior to Oregon..

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.

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

PM me, I live here and happy to discuss.

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?

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.