FHA Owner-Occupied, First Home - Bad Idea Near Boise?
Hello all,
I'm in my mid-20s, and have saved up enough to purchase up to around 300k property with FHA loan, and have a few months emergency fund left over.
For a while I've had the idea of purchasing a duplex or triplex, and occupying one of the units, letting the other unit(s) cover the mortgage/taxes while I pour what I'd be paying into rent into savings for the next property. Unfortunately, in the past year that I've been watching for properties, I haven't seen any properties even coming close to this.
I've recently been reading about this "1% rule" that investors aim for, and this is making me think this is not a great idea. I'm only seeing up to around 0.5% in the units I've been seeing.
I'm willing to go out as far as Emmett/Horseshoe Bend, but even casting the net that wide hasn't been very successful, either. It seems like as you go further from Boise/Meridian, the rents drop by a higher percentage than the property prices (this could just be a feeling rather than reality - I haven't done true side-by-side comparisons).
I would really like to find a place with a garage for each unit, or at minimum space to build a small shop, so that has narrowed my search some - however, I've been watching listings that do not match that criteria and have still failed to find any.
What advice do you have for someone looking to finally move out on their own, that would like to leverage the FHA opportunity to build a future? There are some times that I am just tempted to go with a nice "forever home" property (I've seen a few of them that are tempting) and be done with the idea of real estate investing... But I know this is an immediate gratification vs. long-term financial wellness decision, so have been holding off.