House Hacking in the bay?

[Andrew McIntyre]

I recently started school in San Jose. As majority of you know, prices are extremely high here. Back when I was living in Wyoming I had the plan to house hack with an FHA loan in a 4-unit. Now that I'm in the bay and that I will possibly be employed in the San Jose/Mountain View area, I was wondering what other people have done to get their foot in the real estate investing market here. The only things I can think of is still doing an FHA loan on an SFH and renting out the other bedrooms or just continue renting and find a multifamily to invest in out of state. I figure with as expensive as the homes are here I would be looking at maybe around the same down payment. 3.5% in Cali vs 20% on an out of state.