Newbie From Chicago area excited to get started and needs advice

[Lenard Brown Jr]

Hello fellow BP members, My name is Lenard. I am a young newbie who has been following all of the BP resources almost daily. I just want to express gratitude to the site owners for creating this great site. 

A little about me, I just turned 21 years old this month and currently live in the north west Chicago suburbs. I've been on and off in insurance sales for about the past 2-3 years. I started when I was 18 years old and almost reached $100k in commissions my first year. But long story short, I had a bad relationship with my first agency I worked for and my contract was terminated. Took me a while to say so, but now I feel like I have found the company that is to my par.

I am super eager to get into REI though as soon as possible because it's always felt like something I would be more interested in and passionate about. Ive been doing my research and already figured what my first steps would be. I would like to house hack my first property using an FHA loan. A 3-4 unit Multiproperty at 3.5% down seems like a great first step for me, however there is a few things holding me back.

I would be highly grateful if anyone could give me advice on these few questions.

After I lost my position at the first agency , I quickly realized my poor personal financial habits. I was spending way too much. I quickly destroyed my credit when I didn't have that same income anymore to continue my lifestyle. My credit dropped almost to 500 and has been slowly recovering. I am highly confident in my sales ability and know that I'll be able to pay off all the collections and bad marks soon. 

However, In order to qualify for an FHA loan, I read that you need; 2 years of employment history, A decent credit score at least above mid 600, and also the capital( down payments, closing, renovations, etc . )

1. Will I have to completely reset my employment history now that I just started working for a new agency? 

2. How hard is it for Self employed investors to be approved?

3. My credit is currently sitting at 540 (yeah bad i know :( . I just got accepted for a secured credit card and plan on using it to build again by only using 30% each month. Are there any other tips to speed this process of credit building up?

Thanks guys for reading my post! I look forward to continuing to learn from this site!