Funding Brainstorming for House Hack

[Josh Schaap]

Hello all - fairly new to the REI (and BP) community, but I've invested a lot of time listening to podcasts, reading books, starting to network locally etc. I'm looking for some creative options for financing a potential next purchase. I'll try to briefly describe my current situation:

I'm looking at turning my primary residence into a rental and buying a duplex, triplex, or quad and house hacking. Started talking to some lenders and things aren't looking too well. Not a whole lot of multifamily units on the market locally right now, but a decent duplex would most likely be in the 350k to 450k range. If I have to put 25% down, that's going to cost me ~100k that I don't have. I work a W2 job that pays slightly higher than the median income for my area. I work a gig type of job on the side trying to build up for a down payment.

Primary residence is a townhouse that currently has a ~83% LTV and I will most likely break even with rent or have to pay less than $50/mo out of my pocket to cover expenses. Property is in a desirable area with lots of opportunity for appreciation (value has increased by 35% since I purchased in 2018).

What are some creative options I can look into for financing a next purchase? Or if you would advise against buying a 2nd property right now, what other ideas would you recommend?

Thank you all in advance for your responses!