I am a 30 y.o. Mathematics teacher in Hudson County, NJ and I currently rent an apartment with my wife (also a Math teacher). We were blessed to have a little baby to enter our lives early this year. During this pandemic, we were given tons of time to reflect on life, self, and investments. Growing up we both came from families with generational poverty and are breaking these generational trends.  My wife and I both are interested heavily into investing in real estate buy and hold properties and are ready to jump into the action. We have spent the past year saving and researching as much as we can.  However, with the Baby now in our lives our journey has hit a fork in the road. 

Our major fork in our plan moving forward is: 

1. SFH for our family and choose to establish roots for our little family. (Delay the process of investing a calculated 3 years)

2. Continue with the plan of investing. 

Was wondering if anyone had a similar situation and their outcomes or started later in investing and turned out just fine?

@Nelson Maldonado what about some out of the box thinking. Maybe a house hack with duplex, or do a single family home that needs a little updating that you can live in while working on it and later turn into your first rental using the BRRR method use the cash out for the down payment on your too be primary residence.

Originally posted by @Chris Davidson :

@Nelson Maldonado what about some out of the box thinking. Maybe a house hack with duplex, or do a single family home that needs a little updating that you can live in while working on it and later turn into your first rental using the BRRR method use the cash out for the down payment on your too be primary residence.

Chris, 

Thanks for the insight. I love your ideas. Thinking of our first home as an investment property for the future is a very feasible idea. 
House hacking with a newborn, even with the most accepting tenants, isn't ideal but it definitely is an option to consider. 

A question about the BRRRR method: What kind of financing should I secure for the initial buy? We do not have the funds to buy a property outright here in NJ for the first step. Will I be able to cash out refinance with 70% loan to home value (LTV) if I have utilized a conventional loan to buy the home in the first place? Or does that ONLY work if I bought using cash without an initial appraisal?