Strategy to buy a few houses in 3 years

[Kamil Sekulski]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the Real Estate community, still learning and will appreciate any tips.
I'm planning to buy my first property for house hacking in the next few months. However, I'm aiming to own 2-3 (or more if feasible) houses within the next ~3 years to rent out. I assume I should be looking for low down payment loans. But are there any specific loans I should aim for? I'm basically looking for a strategy, which would work in my case. For example, try USDA (if possible) or FHA loan first and start by buying a primary residence, then do X, then Y.
Also, are there methods to minimize upfront costs? One that I heard is paying more for a house but letting the seller pay closing costs. Any other methods or tricks?
For context, I should probably mention that I have ~$100k in savings, 770 credit score and 95k salary.
I appreciate your help!