Looking for advice for FIRST purchase.

[Christopher Maynard]

Thank you for reading.

A friend that uses the BRRRR method often recommended this site/podcast/book when I asked him for advice on learning real estate investing. This was about 3 months or so ago. I knew I wanted to get into real estate but didn't know where to turn. Since then, I've learned SO much.

So here's where I am. I make about $50k a year as a server in downtown Orlando. Over the past 3-4 months I've spent about $4,000 paying off all of my debts (just finalized the payout on my car today). I have zero debt whatsoever, but also ZERO savings, as I chose to pay off debt instead. My credit score is currently 761, I've never owned my own home, and I'm single so the loan would be entirely in my name (unless I could find a partner, I haven't really looked into this option yet).

What I would like to do, essentially, is find a duplex, triplex or quadplex that I can rent out, and hopefully free up some of my own money that I'm currently spending on rent, as well as being cash flow positive. 

Here's the challenges I'm having. Putting 20% down to avoid the PMI. A lot of these homes are in the mid 200k-400k range, and it would take me forever to save up that kind of deposit. This would also take away any money I could use for rehab. Also, I'm not sure I would be able to get approved for a loan that large on my own.

I've thought about looking into duplexes. It's a fairly affordable monthly mortgage, I could rent one side out, plus rent rooms on my side out. It would free up funds to renovate or repair if I needed to. But I hear a lot of older, more experienced investors say that they wouldn't even waste time on these types of deals and they only look for 4, 8, 12, 16 unit buildings. 

I guess my question is, if you were in my position. 50k/year. Zero debt. Zero savings. Great credit score. Looking into properties and running them through the calculator while you save up... where would you start and what type of deals would you look for? 

Thank you guys for any input you offer.