How to start my journey: mentor partnership or house hacking

[Jonathan Streufert]

Hello everybody! I'm at a bit of a crossroads as far as how and when to start my investing journey, and would like to ask for some opinions as to which road I should take. I understand there is no clear "right" and "wrong" path, but some guidance from people who have been there, done that would be greatly appreciated.

Right now, I'm 25 years old, two years removed from college and have been working full time as an engineer since then. I rent out an apartment and the lease I'm on right now ends May 2018, so a little more than a year from now. I've never invested before, but have really been stepping it up in my education and networking at my local REIA the last few months, so I like to think I have some idea of what I'm doing. I have about $30K in savings available to put towards down payments/other real estate-related expenses, which might be considered fairly sufficient because my market in SE Michigan is quite cheap compared to a lot of the country.

Now, the two options I'm considering: on one hand, I was imagining myself getting started by buying a duplex, triplex, or quad and house hacking (living in one unit and renting out the other(s) to pay the mortgage). I'd do this through an FHA owner-occupied loan, obviously once my current lease ends next May, so I'd be looking to buy something around March or April 2018. I would continue saving up from my W-2 job and have even more funds (likely ~$50K in total) available once that time comes. All of the profit associated with the cash flow, appreciation, and equity would solely belong to me. On the other hand, I'm beginning to form connections with a lot of individuals at my local REIA, like private lenders, buy-and-hold investors, lease option investors, Realtors, etc. With the connections to experienced buy-and-hold investors I'm forming (buy-and-hold single family and small multi-family is my target niche), I could find someone to partner up with and offer them leads, some capital, and maybe add some sweat equity, and in turn learn a lot from them as a mentor in the process. Then we could split the profits and go our separate ways from there. The benefit to this is that I could get started sooner since it wouldn't be owner occupied, so I don't have to wait for my apartment lease to lapse, and the experience itself could be very worthwhile in my education, but I'm wary of starting out with a partnership right off the bat. What if the partnership turns sour with my extremely limited experience? Is starting out with a partnership really the best way to go? How would the profits be split; would the monthly cash flow be split 50/50 for however long we owned the property?

Is there one option that's clearly more advantageous? I'm very torn between the two choices since I was originally banking completely on the house hacking concept, but the idea of starting sooner and gaining a mentor with a partnership is beginning to look pretty good, too. 

Thank you in advance!