Seconding @Joe Norman and @JC Cole here. Househacking is a fantastic way to jump into real estate. I purchased a househack in Towson, MD and rented it room-by-room. It allowed me to 1. live for free (and make money), 2. have awesome roommates, 3. practice being a landlord.
When done correctly, househacking will snowball your real estate investment success by eliminating the costly expense of housing, throw you into the fun of property management, and the icing on top - loan pay-down and some extra money to put in your pocket each month!
So that's the icing - what about the cherry on top? If you're a first time homeowner, you can qualify for seller concessions - in other words the seller will help out with closing costs (in my case it was about 7k). My realtor took care of that when I purchased my househack - so I made a 350k purchase with 10K down (3% conventional loan) and 5k in closing costs.
As for location, my rule of thumb is within 1 mile of a public university, 1 mile of a private university, 1 mile of a large well-established company, and 1 mile of a major hospital system, and of course in an area where you wouldn't mind living. All those factors considered, you shouldn't have an issue screening roommates you wouldn't mind living with.
