House Hacking: How long do I have to live there?

[Francesca Coppola]

My partner and I are trying to get into real-estate investing. We were looking for affordable markets with opportunity and moved to Jacksonville FL. We want to go through the STR route to increase our cashflow since we don't have a lot to put down and we are looking to buy properties putting 3-5% down. It sounds like we will need to live in the property for a period of time so we do not need to put 20% down, how long would we need to live in the property? What is the driver of this timeframe and what's the repercussions if we don't follow the timeframe?