Good afternoon from Texas,

My name is Jose Martinez. 32, married with four children ages 4 & under. I've never bought a home before but came across real estate investing while learning about financial freedom & studying on how to just be better with my money overall. I've decided that real estate investing will be a great path to take for my family & our goals.

We've always rented but are now looking to finally purchase our first home for the family. I currently live in San Antonio, TX but am looking to transfer with my current job as a truck driver to the East Texas area around Longview/Tyler. That's where both my wife & I were born & spent most of our childhoods, so we know the area well. I figured this would benefit me with getting my real estate journey started there somehow. But I haven't found anything in the BP forums about anyone doing deals in this area. Is there anyone here that has any knowledge & experience on what the market &/or process is like out in the East Texas area? I'll need to find ways to start working on building a team of folks out there. I'm looking to buy a house within the next few months.

I don't have much saved up so I've thought about leaning more towards the strategy of purchasing a primary single-family home with that cheaper down payment requirement, adding value while living in it or possibly using some kind of construction loan at purchase & then turning it into a rental once we move to another single-family home to repeat the process. I'm also looking to learn how to analyze deals properly so that I know we'll be transitioning our primary home into a great rental deal in a future. I have zero experience with buying a house & even looking at houses though so I'm working on getting as much knowledge & assistance I can with all of this. It's a bit of a scary process for me.. I'm a deep thinker & over analyzer so I can easily stress myself out with such large decisions when they're new to me. I'm looking forward to making this house buying process a normal thing for me at some point. 

I've spoken to two lenders local to that area recently & was told that I could be qualified for an estimated price of around $215K but that it could be more? It seemed like a long preapproval process with both of these lenders, so I wasn't even sure if I was doing that right. I was just trying to get an idea of what price range I should be looking in before finding something. Should I have done different? Maybe found a property first & then went to run numbers with a lender?

I'll take all the advice anyone is willing to share at this point. Even though my purchase won't be for an immediate rental property, what could I keep in mind to help with my strategy & what should I keep in mind or look for? I'm looking forward to finding my place in this amazing community I've heard so much great things about & meeting great folks that I may be able to get some deals done with down the road. 

Thank you to everyone in advance. Apologies for the long read.