It's an acreage property near the lake that has a main house (2/1), guest house (3/2), and small studio-layout unit (3 units on same property).

We bought it in 2016, did nothing to it and made $40K, which we turned around and used to buy a duplex to house hack. 

everyone wants the distressed assets you're trying to find.the short answer to your questions is: start going to lots and lots of meetups and network in person.i would also think about house hacking as soon as you can. 

The house hacking will pay dividends for a long time I’m sure.

If you walked into a bank, your pre-approval would likely never qualify for a house hack duplex.Did they count 75% of the expected rent towards your DTI? 

Further context, I have zero debt, high 700s credit score, one other investment property here locally. 175k in cash available, looking to do DSCR loans or cash and then refinance.Peoria, Illinois- Great need for lower income housing, market appears to have many options.Lawton, Oklahoma- Looking only at extremely cheap properties, as it seems it’s not terribly hard to find renters.

You can quickly see why looking at this graph - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/buying-vs-renting-house-in-...You can see how in 2015 the average mortgage was cheaper than the average rent, so it was easier to make the math work with light value add and just buying single family homes.

A couple tips--Always best to house hack small multis when you are moving around from base to base. 

I went from growing up in a hut in Vietnam and spending my early years in Section 8 housing in the U.S. to now owning four cash-flowing properties (8 units) across three states.

I understand moving out of your home and occupying a unit in a duplex may be the best financial decision but make sure it’s the best decision for your family because transitioning from a single family house to an apartment with a family of 4 is not always the easiest transition.