(You may need some time to figure out the market and where you want to live there.

Quote from @David Hathaway: Shay Yao, I have found if you can invest within an hour and a half or less away from where you live its much easier to build a super squad of A players that can super scaling a rental portfolio.

You don't want to lose your rate on the house you are living in now unless you want to sell it so since that is an owner-occupied, you need to stay there and save up the 20 percent for the second property based on what you said.

For example, I live in Gilbert, AZ, which isn't exactly the cheapest place to live, so if I begin to look for a house here in AZ are the lenders going to want to see 300k-400k$ in liquid assets for me to get approval for a mortgage (as the homes in my area are around 800K-1M)? 

Quote from @Keith Lincoln: Here's my situation.I currently live in upstate New York but am looking to move to Texas.

If they’re open to living elsewhere, keeping the property as a short-term rental seems like the more profitable long-term play.If you’re enjoying the self-management and the demand remains strong, I’d lean toward keeping this property as an STR and exploring ways to add another.

I was interested in this type of deal because I was living in the area for another year and needed to build equity as well as dip my feet into the real estate market.

I currently live Levittown and a house around the block from me is on the market for 1.5m.

And my Dad in the 70s told me about fake lenders to.. make a living on upfront fees and never lend..

If you are not planning to live in the property, then you are not going to qualify for an FHA loan.