How much mortgage should be used on a small multi family?

[Marcus Brown]

Several years ago I was listening to a BP podcast, don't remember the number, and the hosts were saying that a common mistake a lot of new home owners make is that they get approved for a mortgage and instead of buying a house that's significantly below that, they go and buy as much house as they are approved for, and they may end up being over leveraged.

Should the same advice apply to a small multi family house hack, let's say 3-4 units?