I'm an investor living in Brooklyn. 

I am not an expert in that zip but lived there years ago. 21215 is bad north of nothern parkway and worse south of that.

Hi everyone,My name is Jess Derr and I live in Charles Town (not to be confused with Charleston!)

There's so much to learn in the industry, glad you have a plan of how you want to invest.You're in a great market in the Phoenix area, I invest and live in the area myself.

@Victor Nguyen for starting out either is fine if the numbers work, but if you do a duplex I would recommend starting with the a side-by-side duplex the first time you do one rather than a multi-floor building.The reason being is that managing multis (duplexes) with tenants living over each other come with different problems such as noise complaints, and can limit your options accepting pets.

I would live in the vacant unit.

The property was unlivable at the time, broken water pipes, frozen boiler and water damage.

I heard that there is a moratorium on any more large developments due to the water issue. 

Not to say that you can't jump to long distance investing right away but if you don't have any experience I would try to at least invest in one property within a 1-2 hour drive from where you live.

@Nathan FrostSell your worst 2 or 3 properties that you expect will be the biggest headaches and the ones you can live without.