rent residence and invest or buy residence and invest later??

[Sebastian Gruner]

Hello everyone,

i'm just getting started in real estate investing and we are about to move Denver, Colorado. We've been living in Atlanta for about 1 1/2 years and have been renting as we knew we wouldnt stay in Atlanta for longer. Now my question is what would you do in my position. I've got about 100k in the bank and am wondering if i should go and rent a house and start investing the 100k in fix and flips or should i go and buy my own residence first and do a renovation. I would do most of the renovation myself. I'm extremely skilled due to my job. Here's what i got so far in my mind.
If i do buy my primary residence i can do all the work myself and pull the permits because thats the law Denver, as far as i know. I could build equity in the house and safe money on not having to pay rent but and would be able to buy for example an hud home (no hud homes left for investors in Denver at all) on the other side most of my money will be gone and i cant do any more investing and if its an hud home i will have to stay for at least a year.
If i rent, i pay somebody else's mortgage but can invest and make some money but have the risk that i loose money on my first deal. So i loose money on the deal and on the rent that i pay. Also cant do a lot of work myself on the house due to building law in Denver.
I don't think i can qualify for a conventional loan as we just moved to the States 1 1/2 years ago and i dont have a line of credit. All the money will come out of my over seas account in Germany.
So what's your opinion on what would be the better solution for someone who is just starting out?

Thanks in advance for some great input, you guys are awesome.

Seb