1st mortgage or cash buyout?

[Jeet Patel]

Hello, 

I am planning to buy my 1st house and eventually rental properties. I recently inherited large amount, enough to buy a decent home in cash. My question is, should I buy 1st house without mortgage and use that equity to get rental property and eventually refinancing rental property to pay off equity loan of HELOC on 1st house? or should I just do a 20% down payment for 1st house with 30 year mortgage and do the same with rental property?

My current income is less than 50k with no other asset that could help with mortgage amount. After my quick research, I may not qualify for enough mortgage for personal house and then for rental property. 

Thank you in advance for any responses. #AskBP