Ultimately you need to determine NOI and what that income is going to cost you (cap rate).  

My ultimate goal is to get into buy and hold multiunits.

Our ultimate goal is freedom from our corporate jobs and we would love to be able to work full time in real estate investing.  

I'm working with 2 different banks right now trying to figure out who I'm ultimately going to give my portfolio to.

With that being said, if you really want someone local, then of course do what is comfortable for you as ultimately that is most important

If you get a call or text from a new number, block that too and laugh to yourself that your tenant has got to be panicking now that his game is over and he's got to answer the ultimate call (eviction) for all of this nonsense.

B: I don't want to tie my money up in a huge down payment just so I can live somewhere, instead I could just rent and use my saved up money to put a down payment on a place that will generate me more money instead.But there are a lot of variables, I could potentially see myself buying a cheaper distressed property to live in it while I fixed it up, then flip it or rent it out and move on to another property, but that would again only be because the ultimate end goal would be that it would generate me money over the long term, so again it would need to pencil.

Be sure and check out the“Learn tab above” and download a free copy of “The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing”.

A 401k is a tax shelter which means you shelter any contributions and gains for now but will ultimately pay taxes when distributions commence.

Based on what you've said, I would buy a 3/2 if it is only $15-30k more than a 2 bd, unless you could find a 2 bd where you could add a 3rd br for less than, say $10k with permits. 3/2 homes are ultimately much easier to sell or rent in most markets.