looking to start investing

[Tyson Phung]

Hello! This is my first post here! I have been getting an itch to start investing in to real estate and having a hard time learning all of this on my own. I live in the pacific northwest and prices on houses are extremely high (around 350-600K)! I have managed to save up 40k and make around 3500k a month. 

I was looking at maybe putting down for a duplex for investment and living in one unit, buy a smaller home to start off and pay it off within 5 years, or buy a larger home to live and invest later. 

I am a noob at all of this and just want to learn. I have been reading and doing a lot of youtube video searches. 

Any points on the direction i should take? how i should get started to get the best possible outcome? 

Thanks in advance! I know i have to start somewhere.