Renting is terrible if you plan on staying somewhere for a long time, depending on current interest rates and hinge prices in the area you're in of course.
I would definitely finance before spending. Although when 1/4 of my stack pays off the house, I'm going to pay off the house. Then I can start stacking super hard without a mortgage to pay every month.
I'm excited to see what kind of Bitcoin backed loans come out of this next bull run.