1st house-hack with Debt-To-Income challenges

[Lori L Miller]

First, I want to say how grateful I am for all the expertise here in this forum! Thank you in advance for any input you can add. 

I want to purchase my first ever property, a 4 plex. My initial plan was to first pay off or at least pay down my $177K in student loans (ridiculous and a story for another day). But for some reason, after the new administration put a pause on student loan repayment, my huge student loan debt came off of my credit report which gave my credit score quite a boost to approximately 750! After consulting with a few people I decided to just try to get into my first house hack and use some of my free rent to pay down my student loans while my mortgage is being paid by tenants. And I would continue to save and build up my reserves for another property. I currently have $10K saved and is growing slowly. Well my student loans are back on my credit report and now my Fico has dropped to 634/706 My debt to income ratio is not good 

The thing is, I am self employed and have only been self employed for approximately 2 years. My first year I didn’t make hardly anything and my second year I had income receipts of $65K but after deductions only had $35K in taxable income (not necessarily and true reflection of my income). This made me prequalify for only $120K for financing. (Not really workable as I am Looking to house hack in North Dallas where my business is) I thought I should look for private money and wondering who could (or would) use my cash flow of the property as part of my income? This being my first property ever, I want to make the best decision I can for a clear path to success. Reaching out to the forums to get your input on what you think would be my best option?