i am recently out of college and my fiance and i are looking for a new place to stay. My plan is to get an FHA loan at 4.75%. My intentions are to purchase a location that is a good investment. By good investment i mean a profitable move.

The options that my uneducated mind has created is:

1. Try to find a great deal with a foreclosed home(don't know how ill do this)

2. find a good home at very good price that will hopefully increase in value in a couple years.(im sure everyone wants this)

3.This is the option i want the most. Id like to purchase a duplex and rent out the other half. It seems like it is a very good investment and a good idea to do this. I don't mind the landlord business bc/ ill do a good job filtering the renters.

Thanks so much for all of your advise i appreciate i immensely.

Hi BT701,
If you're just starting out, you may want to look at homes with suites - not necessarily a legal 'duplex'. Duplexes are much more expensive for a beginning investor like yourself. If you're on your own, rent out the larger of the two suites to get a good head start paying down your mortgage. Also, if there's a garage, you can rent that out too to maximize cashflow from the property. As regards what neighbourhood? Look for one where there are a few newly renovated homes and the rest need work. Those tend to be the transitional neighbourhoods on their way up in value. Go to my website for more info.

Bt701,

As someone just getting out of college, the landlord business may not be such a good choice as you are going to be spending alot of time working and trying to progress professionally as well as spending time with your fiancé/new wife. Even if you find the best tenant, it's the maintenance that can be a real pain. It wouldn't be cool to get a call at three in the morning from your tenant because their air conditioning doesn't work or toilet is backed up.

The first home I purchased was a duplex! I was able to rent the upper half of the property, live in the lower half and have a lower monthly payment.

At the end of the day, I think it comes down to preference and ultimately, how much out of pocket a person wants to be spending on their home.

I can saw however there are some definite downsides to being a landlord. Just really depends on preferences...

I hope this helps.

Buying a duplex has a number of financial advantages over buying a house. Duplexes are more frequently about 1.5 times the price of a house in a given subdivision. So to pick an easy number if a house is selling for 100k then a duplex should be selling for 150k.

I think that this is a great topic. I actually teach an investing class in Community Education that compares single-family homes to duplexes. One strong component of duplex investing for a newbie is that you can buy a duplex with an owner-occupant loan (lower interest rate than an investor loan). Plus, because one-half will be owner-occupied, the buyer should be able to qualify for lower down payment options (i.e. 3.5% - 5%). Good luck!

I own apartment buildings but do not live there. It comes down to preference.

I would never want to live next to my tenants.That's just my personality.If you can stomach it then go for it.

Housing prices have dropped and will go back up again! You definitely should go for a house while the prices are low. You can view current and past house values at this website:
<a href="http://www.homes.com/Home-Prices/?lid=4D7F3B0FFD16B44397FCE157CF8778D0EA6F3FCF">Home Values</a>
I am buying my first house and closing next month. The house was valued at $30,000 more last year at this time. I am glad that I am getting a really good price!