Like all things I landlord world, do not skip ahead in the process.

Unless you have an amazing benefit of why they should pay you more, you're going to get skipped over for the lower rent properties. 

The Las Vegas strip casinos are the one that the whale would not skip gambling.  

If the tenant skipped or didn't pay, their deposit could help make up the loss in the end.  

Scrambling to cover a service call, a broken water heater and a tenant that's on his last three days of a thirty day notice can make your heart skip a few beats. 

I'm in the same boat now about trying to move on to multifamily (I'd like to skip the duplex phase if possible).

All in all I skipped the turkey route and just went with the traditional boots on the ground!

I would suggest House Hacking first and the move up to SFH or skip MLS entirely and focus on deep discount off-market deal (lot more legwork, driving and networking) but you'll need to really drive down purchase price to lower mortgage.

@kim @Kim Meredith Hampton The tenant is cooking some basic breakfasts in the morning using the microwave for eggs and the toaster for bread and waffles but obviously cannot cook anything substantial without a stove or oven. 

I'm now weighing the following two options: refinance out of the FHA now/wait a year to buy a new building or skip the refi and go straight for a multifamily building now.