Multi family for buy and hold

[Drew Cameron]

Hi fellow BP'ers. I'm looking into buying my first property and am looking into multi family homes. I'm in the pre qualified phase for another few hours as my loan officer has his company doing computer maintenance work until Sunday night when he will be able to pull my credit score. Based off of the numbers I gave him he thinks I can easily get pre approved for up to 175,000 for a duplex. There are many available in my area so he told me to take a look in the meantime. Many of these duplex and triplex in my area can have significant cash flow from day 1 or can live in one side and use the other to cover most if not all the mortgage. My loan officer said he thinks I can get the first time home buyers grant and my realtor is investor friendly (he's an investor himself) who said he will negotiate that the seller pay closing costs. Has anyone done this successfully and got a house with no or low money down and free rent? It seems like the dream scenario!