It is possible he or she thinks they will be staying past the 5 months and will save by buying.

You can learn the biz while saving up commission income to eventually invest yourself.

I'm trying to get money saved so I can eventually get started with real estate.

Short of a substantial saving on the purchase price, I guess it doesn’t make sense.

I’m moving to a new city (Dallas) for my first decent paying job and I’ll have the option to owner-finance a house for 5-10% down (and be much closer to work) or stay with my sister (for very cheap) and save up 20% to get a conventional to buy a rental.Which would you do, BP?

Also you can say the same thing about BP and everyone is talking about buying rentals.. its the herd mentality and when all these folks started buying in the deep trench after the GFC they expected the 2% rule or more that's where it was spawned.. now its 1% is acceptable and next thing you will know its .05%  etc etc.. the herd is alive and well in buying rental real estate in the US>. and I for one am happy to see it.. if the herd was not buying in many markets those markets would be flatt on their  @$$  and devolving but with all this out of state and out of country investment it saved many many cash flow markets from implosions.. since the organic market in the actual area IE local investors is not sufficient to buy all the homes that are there.. think about that one.. !!! 

Should I be focused on building my credit and saving money only right now or is there a way to get into my first rental property to get my investments started?  

PLUG numbers IE 600 foot of 8 inch sewer at 80 bucks a foot installed.. that kind of thing.there fee and then survey construction sign offs then post pre and post plat monumentation.. 5 to 10k up front can save you 100's of thousands on the back end..

Number one source is your savings. 

You have to start your savings regimen all over again (because you won't be able to refinance in the foreseeable future to get your deposit back)!