Looking for advicefor my first House Hack

[Henry Lewis]

Hello BP,

I am 23 years old and I am looking to get into REI through via House Hacking. I reside in the east side of Tampa, currently renting and I HATE the idea of paying someone else mortgage... So I want to make someone else pay mine. My lease ends in august, and my current roommate would love to be my tenant.

My goal is to build a team in the upcoming month and get everything in order to find a property in June/July so we could move in in august. I am open to any and all ideas regarding single residences, multi-family, or other options if someone has creative insight. Through my research it appears that between east Temple Terrace, Thonotosassa, and Mango/Seffner, will be the area I should be looking, kind of in that west area of the i-4/i-75 corridor. In an ideal world, I'd want to lock up a multi-family property under ARV with room to force appreciation, I understand this will be HARD to accomplish given the current market and I am prepared that this goal may be unobtainable. I want to work hard to make my goals happen though. Insight on finding such properties, on or off-market, would be appreciated.

I will also be going with a FHA loan if anyone has any recommendations or things to watch out for with those.

I'm looking for anyone that can provide insight to a newbie in this area, thank you all for your time.

[Khaled Morad]

Quote from @Joshua Janus:

That's awesome you got an FHA with your job offering @Henry Lewis. I've heard of others that have received the same. Has your lender informed you about using income from the other units to help you qualify for something larger? 

You can use 75% of the real (if occupied) or market rent (if vacant) towards your DTI.