I live in San Jose, CA and the largest dilemma I have now is whether I should start investing in real estate, then save up another deposit to buy my first home, or vice versa?

We definitely can go with a conventional vice FHA loan, and our down payment can be anywhere up to 60,000, depending on the level of renovation the property requires - so could be well above the 3.5% mark. $500,000 is my ideal price point based on my (rookie) number crunching, and I have seen things in that range pop up on Zillow - however I realize the price advertised on Zillow may not accurately reflect what homes are actually closing for.  

And also take all advice with a grain of salt... what works for someone else may not work for you and vice versa! 

“When we asked our members why they thought rent payments dropped in October, many cited Covid, delays in unemployment checks, or that tenants – or sources of support - had run out of money,” commented NARPM® President Kellie Tollifson, MPM® RMP® of Bothell, WA.

In a lot of cases, it's second to the president of the company in compensation. 

They don't have to work to maintain area stability--it's handed to them every month, plus debit cards to buy food with, free cellular phones and free health insurance.America seems to be having some of the best job and wage growth it's had in a long time do to the efforts of the current President, if that were to change back to business as usual (like we had before), the upward swing would probably go back to where it was before--not as good--Nationwide vs. just individual areas flexing up and down in a natural manner.

I'm a full-time wholesaler and president of a local investor association in the Baltimore area.

Its almost like I would get the same experience, but if I have the stake then I can say I owned and managed the turn around of a property vice just managing it.

We tend to forget that the President is powerless without the consent of Congress.

Furthermore, several Fed Presidents when polled are anticipating more but smaller hikes in the first half of next year on top of those, so while some have been skeptical about how serious the Fed is, it looks like they're not playing around.