New Investor & Homeowner; Which First? Home or Rental?

[Noureen A S.]

I've never owned a home but I'm eager to buy my first rental SFH by March, 2019.

Through my research, I read that if you've never owned a home, but looking to invest, you should buy your first home before you buy your first rental. Reasons:

1. Your debt is at it's lowest and you'll likely get your best mortgage rate on the first property you buy.
2. Since the first property you buy will get the best rate, it just makes sense that the first property you buy is a home you plan to live in for a long time.

The issues I'm having with this are the following:

1. I live in an area of NC where housing prices have been rising... quickly, it seems.
2. I'm fairly certain that it will take me longer to buy find my first home than it will to find my first rental property. I could take a year or more to find my first home.

Given the market I'm in, it doesn't seem so wise to wait so long but it seems I'll have to wait a year before I can buy my first rental )with a decent rate, at least).

My question is this: what if my first purchase is a rental - wouldn't I have to get a 'commercial' loan for the property anyway? And if I do buy the rental property (and my debt goes up), would that really have a great affect on the rate of my future owner-occupied loan, being that I don't even have my own home yet?

Has anyone ever been in this exact situation? I'm trying to figure out ways around this.

Thanks in advance!