Novice here, looking for investment property (no rentals) w/in 6-10 months.Areas of interest in Central NY - West, South, and North-West of Syracuse, and East side Auburn.Question:First time home owner; to buy first flip property as my FIRST and PRIMARY residence, or buy a home to stay in personally, and wait 2-4 years to build more cash for purchase of secondary/tertiary properties on the side to be flipped? 

Others want to leverage the bank in order to buy properties, stay patient, and perform 1031 exchanges when the time is right to try to buy multi-family or commercial properties.if the math works out, another option is to leverage your equity for a cash out refi, use that to buy a duplex or 4-plex. that even is not taxablebut i would say the decision itself has to fit into the larger, long-term goal.

Stay clear of the sheriff's auction unless you are an experienced investorIn this case, the sheriff's auction was packed as I have never seen it and the bidding on my interest went way over my predetermined limit. 

All of my leases are 12 months and are renewed if someone chooses to stay. 

I think the french doors could stay you can frost with decays. 

I have a place to stay right now for a good price, so I'd be renting out all four units.

Stay patient and level-headed and you can find deals some deals now, and many deals when things start to cycle. 

I intend to purchase with 20% down and trying to stay under 250K - 300K.  

In particular, I liked how you managed to stay disciplined by underwriting so many deals.

I have talked to my friend and asked him how long he plans to stay there for, he is ok to start off with a 5 year lease with options for another 5 years, but mentioned that if possible, he would not mind consider a shorter lease as long as the price stay the same as the 5 year lease.