And, at that time and place, it would arguably be silly NOT to do so. 100%.This post was biased towards San Francisco, and California more general to include Los Angeles and San Diego, today in 2024.

In Philadelphia area there are several REIAs including Diversified Investors Group (DIG), Delco Property Investors (DPI), and South Jersey REIA (SJREIAA) just to name a few.

The main differences (besides rates/underwriting guidelines) is what you can include in your renovation costs.

@Brandon Stelling As a military veteran with 100% VA disability benefits, you can leverage VA home loans to purchase properties with no down payment, no PMI, and favorable terms, including multi-family properties for house hacking. 

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases:Class A Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% the more recent norm.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 680+ (roughly 5% probability of default), zero evictions in last 7 years.Class B Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, decent amount of relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% should be applied only if proper research done to support.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 620-680 (around 10% probability of default), some blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 5 yearsClass C Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, high cashflow and at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.

It's expected and common for MTRs to have utilities included.

If you want to develop it, I can refer you a lender that will lend on a completed subject to appraisal but you'll be limited if you just want it for the lot.If you simply want the land as part of your property, you have more options including a HELOC which you can still use for development down the road. 

I can build a 4-plex, four two story units side by side, with a total of about 5000sf for about $1m, land included.

That is between 6 and 20 returns out of every 10,000 returns.That 6 or 20 has to include some pretty likely candidates.

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.