My primary focus will be on rental properties.

But buying your primary residence is both the easiest underwriting and the best lending terms you will get.

I thought I was doing well enough to get an FHA approved mortgage for my primary residence.

If so, this could help with the cash flow for holds ... buy it like a flipper, finance it as a primary residence, fix up while living there as plan A, vacation rental as plan B after a year or 2, sell for profit as plan C.  

An accredited investor, in the context of a natural person, includes anyone who: earned income that exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) in each of the prior two years, and reasonably expects the same for the current year, OR has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence).for full details, see the first link

There may very well be a call provision for not maintaining a property as a primary residence, or change of ownership, or just because the bank feels like it.

Currently living in apartmentWorking full time as a management consultant and also in grad schoolLiving below our means and currently building savings for emergency fundsBlessed with a promotion that will allow us to build savings at a faster rateEstimate to have $30k in savings in 12 months time (depending on how well I control my Chipotle cravings :) )Plan for first property acquisitionfirst property will be primary residenceFind distressed / REO property (4/2/2)use FHA 203k loan to roll in rehab cost and put 5% down (heard doing 5% instead of 3% means no PMI, need to verify that)Plan for investment property acquisitionsAssume rehab yields 25% ARVUse HELOC and savings to purchase first and subsequent investment properties as soon as possible.Overall I'm looking to force equity in a primary residence and use HELOC and savings to start acquiring properties.  

According to FinCEN, these reports “underscore [d] the potential benefits of AML and SAR regulations for a variety of businesses in the primary and secondary residential mortgage markets.”

@Devlin HardingHow long have you lived in your primary residence?

leasing back property to yourself for your primary residence that you have a ownership interest in "lease backs" get into a bunch of special IRS rules, so basically you can't do it.