Qualified for a Home Loan

I originally wanted to get a loan for a rental property that I could just run as a landlord, however it turns out you need to put about $30K down and have about $15K in the bank to qualify for a true rental property loan. However, I can buy a duplex and live in one half of it, and as long as I live in it for at least a year, I qualify for a loan of about $250K.

It turns out I have perfect credit with respect to home loans--my credit score, even after a bit of a beating in the last two months, averages to 730, which gets me the best rate. The rate is variable, moving as much as three times a day, but is somewhere between 5.5-6.5%. If I decide to go ahead and buy a property, which I'm not certain I will yet, I can wait until the rate hits 5.5% and put $350 down to hold the rate for 90 days. This $350 is subtracted from the eventual loan, but even if it wasn't, it's a comparitively small amount of money with respect to the amount you save in interest (0.005% of $250k is $1,250).

So now this is where I get picky. I have a few months to think this over, and this is what I want in a place:
- Nice part of town (not a rich part of town, but at least a safe neighborhood). Aside from the rich neighborhoods, here's a few areas I'm thinking of buying:
> Uptown
> Calhoun Lakes (theres a few places I could afford)
> Merriam Park/Cathedral/Mac-Groveland
> Longfellow
> Northeast
- An area with a high rental value, so when I move out I can easily rent my portion
- Energy efficient
- A property on a quick sale, for below market value, so if need be I can turn a profit in a few years
Hmmm... anything else on my wishlist? :-)

That's all for now. I'm going to contact a real estate agent today and start to feel my way around the process.