New to Investing, What should my First Deal be?

[Edward Xiong]

Hello Everyone! 

I am really enjoying the Biggerpockets podcasts, forums and everything about it.  It has really made my journey and learning process become a whole lot easier.  I have been learning so much and different methods and creative ways through tons of reading and podcasts and I want to get started on my first deal. I am only working part-time and going to school full-time, but I do not want to be a "poor person" finishing school and getting a job. 

I believe my credit is hovering around 600-620, and I only have about $2k saved up. The most attractive method of real estate investing is definitely the BRRRR method. From my understanding, BRRRRing is paying out cash on a distressed property through a private lender or with hard money loans at a huge discount from market price, rehabbing, renting out, cash out refi to AFV of 65-70% of cash in which is then used to pay back the private lender or hard money, and used to repeat. I LOVE the idea that it requires ZERO amount of my own money and using the power of GOOD debt. However, since it is my first deal, I am not sure if BRRRRing would be a good start for me to get my feet wet. I did consider buying and holding a rental property, but I don't think I will have enough money saved for a down payment + my credit score isn't above 720 for the best interest rates. Another huge concern I have is not finding a good property to BRRRR. Rehabbing is another issue I am also very concerned with in terms of what needs to be fix, trusting or finding a good contractor and estimating the amount of repair expense when looking at a property (used when I crunch the numbers in the BRRRR calculator).

My next method would be house hacking with a FHA loan that I could probably qualify for, and after I've saved up more money living for free, start buying a rental property and then slowly transition into BRRRR.

Can anyone give me advice for a young, aspiring real estate investor???