Buying investment property before buying own house

[Anton Ermolaev]

Hello,

I am about to start my real estate journey, but, having some dilemma I would like to share with you. 

I am an IT architect from Dallas, TX with a salary way over $100k. I am renting a gorgeous apartment for $1000 just next to the office and have $30k on my savings account.

I am thinking of buying a house for $100k-$130k. But, because I don't have my own house to live, I can't decide, what my investment strategy should be:

1) Buy the first house for myself and wait till I will have downpayment for the second house, which will be my rental property.

2) Stay in my apartments(keep paying rent) and buy the first house as a rental property.

3) Buy a duplex and live in one half while renting out another one. I believe, that is what Brandon did. Also, this approach is usually recommended in similar threads on this forum. The problem here, is that I don't have enough money for downpayment(conventional loan) for duplex and may need to wait for another 6-9 months to do that. While waiting, I am wasting money on apartment rental.

What will you suggest to do? I believe, majority of you have been in such situation. What did you do?

Thanks in advance