Investment with Duplex,Triplex,Fourplex

[Ryan Ramsay]

Hi everyone I'm 19 years old renting an apartment as of 4/23/25. I make around 70k a year and have 25k saved. I currently own outright a cabin and a piece of land in Idaho but currently live in Oregon. I want to start getting into the rental business and buy a property. I have a trust fund that has a good amount of liquid cash. My main question here is should I spend most my capital to put 20% down on a property around 500-600k, should I use some equity in the paid off properties to buy another few properties/one big property, should I spilt the money between 2- 250-300k properties or should I utilities the FHA loans and house hack with a rental property. Any advice is appreciated thank you.

[Chris Watkins]

Quote from @Dalton Summers:

I often notice that Borrowers face challenges meeting the FHA self-sufficiency rule for triplexes and quads when putting down only 3.5%. Just something to consider.

The house hack course is likely your best course of action with your situation. $70k/yr can get you into a loan of around $350k at 7% assuming you have no other debt. Adding the higher three stated rents in the listing get you to about a $630k loan amount, so you'd need $260k + closing costs to make that deal work. 
 

What Dalton said is true for almost all of the tri- and four-plexes in West Coast markets. I would steer towards a conventional loan for a househack (you can do up to four units). Conventional has some downside (higher rates, lower DTI threshold) but many benefits (easier property underwriting, more likely to get your offer accepted, and more).

If you want to leverage your paid-off properties (within reason), that can make your next purchase(s) go a little farther. 

In general, it takes a bit of investment (time, money, or both) to get a cash-flowing property in Portland right now. The long-term appreciation is the better play rather than hoping for lots of income from the start.

I'm happy to dive into more details if that would be helpful! Shoot me a DM or reach out via my contact info.