Starting Advice on Approach

[John Powell]

Hello BiggerPockets Community!

My name is John and I wanted to get some starter advice regarding a matter I am currently dealing with as I plan my way on starting my investment career. 

Currently, I have never owned a house and would like my first. I will just say that time is not necessarily on my side as I am not in my 30s. Nevertheless, I have saved up about 150k for investing and getting a house. The question I have is from what I am reading that I should get out of my rent situation and if all things are the same pay a mortgage that does not cost me an arm and a leg so I can leave the max amount for investing in real estate. 

This is a sellers market and good locations are asking for a premium price (boca/ft lauderdale etc) in FL.   Given that I do have my emergency fund of 6 months squared away I am trying to figure out the best course of action I should take. My sole focus is to trade expenses of my rent into mortgage ASAP and then use everything else for heavily investing in real estate. 

A couple of options would be to get a bigger house in a good location but at market value or a bit higher and house hack. Alternately, I could just get a newly developed house and pay full price = market value and not have to deal with a house in this competitive environment. Lastly, I could just hold out and keep searching for not the best looking houses (anything after 1990? maybe low HOA or none but unlikely). I am also seeing condos losing value and that could be a way out however it has its own rules, fees that I will be stuck with.

Any assistance in context of approach and direction would be appreciated. I have been going about all of this the wrong way for a lot of my life and I need to make a critical change to have a chance later in life.  I am definitely action oriented but do not want to jump in without some sound advise. I am currently reading some real estate book and gaining knowledge, however, I my lease will expire in a few months and this is just as a good time as any to first get out of being a renter.  It seems like a reasonable goal as I make my way into real estate investing.  Your actionable advise would be most welcome. 

sincerely,

John