Consider H.Yi’s strategy (9710 62nd Drive, Rego Park, NY 11374), and 43 Rockledge hotel model

I sacrifice [home size; SD; CC2; full appreciation with land] and bet on connectivity, which hopefully provides [RD; partial appreciation; liquidity ]

Suppose I have 150k spare cash and a budget of $200k-350k for my 1st rental property, I could choose

— Option 43R: small wood house with 3 to 6 rooms, in a popular rental location. Rental yield would be much higher than Option C, but more legwork.

At Bayonne, I could buy a 350k two-family-home with $600 x 7 rooms including the attic+basement for 50k/Y gross rental income. At 10% vacancy rate, it’s still 45k/Y. Tax 11k/Y is easily taken care of. Assuming 5k annual maintenance cost, my NRY = 25~30k

Foreclosed property (viewable, unlike pre-foreclosure) can be a bargain.

— Option R: At 250k, I hope to buy a SFH with 3-4 bedrooms including attic and basement. No math done yet.

— Option C (inferior): tiny family home in a popular location (like Bayonne, JSQ, Weehawken) with good CC1 and RD. Probably not great school district 🙁

• small house

This option feels safe as long as … reasonable income or appreciation and high liquidity, so I could sell any time. In the interim, the rent would be a big bonus if net positive cash flow.

— Risks and concerns:

• Right after buying, bank balance basically wiped out, a bit dangerous
• risk is much lower if i can live there myself
• risk is smaller if I can divide into small rooms but it’s harder if condo and remote-managed.
• pTax is even worse than mtg interest (which I could pay down), so Option 43 yield can hopefully offset that.