This is my first post here. Several people suggested this would be the place to read, ask questions, and learn. My goal is to prepare myself so that when I pull the trigger on a building I'll be in the best possible position to succeed.

What I want to do is buy an investment property with 2 or more apartments on top of a main/ground floor that I can use for office space for my business (counseling practice). As the business grows I want enough space so that I can either rent office space or have others working under me. Then I'll use the office for the duration of my career. While purchasing additional properties might be on the table in the future, it is not my primary focus right now.

I've begun to educate myself on properly screening potential tenants, taxes, codes/laws, leases, insurance, and budgeting. I've also opened a savings that will generate 1.2% and will use that and some other money that's invested to build the down payment up over the next 2-3 years. I figure I'll save up $50k-$60k+ and then buy a $200k-$250k property in a specific part of town.

A little about myself...I first started to work by maintaining my family's apartment buildings at the age of 10 and continued until I went to undergrad. Jumping ahead...I now own a home, work 3 jobs...1 of which is my practice out of two different locations, and do most of my own auto/home repairs and maintenance, and have perfect credit. Right now, the 2 jobs pay our bills and I am saving 100% of what I make at the practice and have been for 5-6 months now.

I've worked for and have spoken to a handful of other people who have done exactly what I'm looking to do without significant difficulty. Elsewhere, concerns about noisy/disruptive tenants, working where collecting rent, etc. have been expressed. Again, through the education process I'm hoping to avoid whatever nightmares can be avoided and deal effectively with those that sometimes can't.

I tried educating myself on different aspects of a mixed use business/apartment investment property but the terms and phrases I used kept yielding irrelevant results. The majority of threads/articles/etc. pertained to people looking to make a living from buying investment properties rather than those who just wanted one property to use for another business and letting part of the tenants' rent pay the mortgage. I'd greatly appreciate advice based on experience and maybe some terms/phrases that would improve searching throughout the forum.

Thanks in advance!!

Steve

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