I'm just starting to research REI and looking for suggestions on books or other resources I should consume. So far I've been watching https://www.biggerpockets.com/... and started reading "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties". Are there any "must-read" books people would recommend to a new prospective investor?

I'm most interested in buying a duplex or fourplex as my first property so I could house-hack. Since I'm inexperienced I'm inclined to look for a turnkey property, but maybe I should be considering rehab properties as well?

Because I work remotely, I could invest in potentially any area of the country, although I've been mostly looking at Saint Louis, MO since it's a city I was already considering moving to. I have ~140k that I could put towards down payment, closing costs, etc, and it seems like that's more than enough to get a fourplex in STL. Some recurring advice I've seen in the "Intro to REI" videos and in the forums is to be conservative when estimating expenses, and I'm finding that makes it difficult to make any property cash flow, especially if I'm living in one of the units.

For example, this fourplex: https://www.zillow.com/homedet... is only 250k (which is so much lower than most other fourplexes I've seen that it seems like there might be some additional due diligence required). But at face value, the three currently rented units produce $2095/month in net income, so it seems like the cash flow could be great, but then when I plug everything into the calculator tool on BP with 8% vacancy, 10% property management, 10% cap ex, etc, I actually end up with a negative cash flow. Granted, even if the cash flow is -$200/month, I would be living rent-free as an owner-occupant and I would be gaining equity as the mortgage was paid off, so maybe it's possible to have a good investment that doesn't cash flow? Or is that phrase an oxymoron?

Something I found odd is the calculator's projected cash flow seems to improve over time. Is that because the calculator assumes rents will increase over time?

Lastly, are there resources about FHA vs traditional mortgages in terms of expected returns? Since I'm planning to owner-occupy, I initially thought a FHA or other small down payment mortgage would generate the best returns, and after reading a few forum threads it seems like that's what people usually recommend. It makes sense, and a small down payment would leave me with plenty of cash reserves, probably even enough to be ready to put a down payment on my next property when I felt ready. But if I'm already at a negative cash flow with a traditional 20% down payment, a FHA loan with PMI and higher principle payments would make my cash flow even worse. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks to anybody who takes the time to reply! I'm hoping to learn as much as I can and it seems like this is a good community to be part of!

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