New here, help me figure out my game plan (Philadelphia area)

[Ryan McHenry]

Hello all. Just as a preface, this is my first post. I'm completely new to real estate and I'm in the process of reading through all the material that got sent to me when I signed up, but I haven't finished any significant portion of it beyond the basics. So there will probably be some dumb questions/questions that are answered in the reading material that I just haven't gotten to. Go easy on me.

So a little about myself. I'm 22, currently living with family in the Philadelphia suburbs. I have no debt; never went to college (beyond some community college) so I have no student loans, own my car outright, pay my credit card off in full each statement period. I recently found out the company I work for is going under, and I will be losing my job at the end of January/beginning of February. I've been looking for a way to move out and gain some financial stability for a while and I feel like this is as good an opportunity as I'm going to get at this point in my life. Between my current savings, projected savings while I still have my job, my upcoming tax return, and my severance package from getting laid off, I should have ~$10K to use. Maybe a little more maybe a little less depending on a few things.

I think the move that makes the most sense for me right now is to try a "house hack", and buy a multifamily with an FHA loan, live in the one unit for at least a year and rent the other(s) out. This would kill two birds with one stone and allow me to move out, while also living for free and gaining some passive income. I guess what I need to know is what the smartest use of that money is going to be. I'm not planning on taking any real steps for a few more months but in the mean time I want to have a plan so when the time does come for me to get the ball rolling, I can just start knocking things off a list and just do it. Ultimately, this is definitely something I can see myself doing full time. Working for myself is absolutely something I want to work towards, but I just need help figuring out what my starting point is and where to go from there. I really just want to get opinions on what I should do from people with more experience than I am. So I guess my first question is what steps do I need to take to get a good deal on an MFD? After that, how do I go about finding good tenants/what do I need to know about being a landlord from a legal standpoint? And last, what's the best way to reinvest that income/turn this into a full time thing? Saving up for a second property? Flipping houses?

Advice, or links to reading material on any of these subjects is much appreciated.