Hello to all!! 

I am about to get my real estate license and buy my first investment property. I want to buy a duplex or a triplex but there are not many in Surprise AZ. If I don't buy a duplex and I buy a single family residence how can I finance my next property? I know with a duplex you can get cash flow and go from there but I don't know the route to follow if I buy a SFR.. By the way I will be living in the property that I buy. Please help/advice. What route did you take after you bought your first investment property ,single family home?

Thank you all for your tips/advice. 

Based on your income, you will be approved for a certain mortgage amount.  For example, if that amount is 400,000 and there are properties that sell for 50,000 nearby then you can buy 7 or 8 properties.  If there is equity in your first property or any of the properties you can also take out equity lines in them as long as your debt to income is good and you have the reserves.

I bought my first investment property, a 5/2 with 20k cash and 2nd investment property was a 5/2 duplex with 10k cash.  I took 66k in HELOCs against those properties and bought some more.

If you are living in the house you buy, that's not an investment property, that is considered your primary residence. The real question is how do you go about buying your first non-owner occupied property. If you have enough documentable income, you can afford to two carry houses (your primary and a second house or vacation home). Conventional lenders will normally apply the same ratios (LTV, FICO and Debt to Income) as when you purchase your primary property, now they will just add the second home amounts to the first home.

If you don't have the income or the cash, you will need to use non-conventional lending, such as private or hard money.  You can also do a joint venture with an investor where you find the property, put it under contract to control it and bring in an investor who has the cash.

God Bless You!

@Gabriela Gomez  

A good move would be to purchase a multi-unit (duplex, triplex, fourplex) and live in one of the units. If you work the numbers before buying, depending on the market, you could feasibly live rent free and even possibly get some positive cash flow on top. You could use that situation to save up for the funds to purchase your next rental property.

If you do plan to occupy the multi-unit while renting the other units out, look into an FHA loan which requires only a ~3.5% down payment so that you can keep more of your funds in your pocket to put toward the purchase of your next property as well. Keep in mind that the lower down payment and additional required mortgage insurance will eat into some of your cash flow however.

Good Luck!

Me and my partner started out slow.  We found a property that was a good deal and fixed it up, rented it, and let it make money.  When we found another good deal we bought it and did the same thing.  It wasn't until 6 or 8 years later when a great tenant said he was looking to buy and move out that we sold our first rental to him  and then leveraged into 3 or 4 more properties with the profits.  We were pretty basic and uneducated.  We did not do 1031 transfers or anything novel.  Just buy when we found a deal, fix and rent, and sell if we had a good offer.  Back then the bank let us borrow with only 10% down, now I have to put 20% down and it has slowed me down a lot.