How should I live?

[Hala Helstien]

I am wondering how all you RE Investors live. As in, do you rent or do you own while investing in real estate? My husband and I have been living with his parents rent free for 4 1/2 years now while I started a retail business. We are now ready to move out and we know we want to invest in real estate. We live in Southern CA so the price for a small 3bd 2ba single family home starts at $500k. The ones we like are $600k+. The decisions are endless and I just want to make sure we make the right one. Financially speaking. We could buy a less expensive Condo and deal with HOA's, or we could buy a single family fixer upper and live in it while we fix it up? Or we could rent a condo and save up lots of money to buy out of state rentals? We first need a place to live. Any advice would be very appreciated!