For example, I live in Gilbert, AZ, which isn't exactly the cheapest place to live, so if I begin to look for a house here in AZ are the lenders going to want to see 300k-400k$ in liquid assets for me to get approval for a mortgage (as the homes in my area are around 800K-1M)? 

1) Make sure to have checks; we needed to write a check in so many instances, which we're not used to doing since everything is online these days. 2) spend the money to take good pictures of the property if you're going to put it up for rent.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

(But not for a “I’m going to live in it 50 weeks out of the year and rent it out two weeks”, IMHO, if that was your idea.  

So far, it’s almost going a little too smoothly and we sort of feel like we’re just waiting for the fall.

As far as markets go, there are tons of options, what are your goals?

Quote from @Paul Zofsak: Not sure where this should go so I'm putting it here. 

Obviously if you go this route you need to be very attentive and make sure to zero out the credit cards as the promotion ends.  

Timelines, budgets, quality of finishes, they all need to go well for your exit and if your in bed with a GC that only cares about himself then all those things will not go right for you, but he'll still get his money.People really underestimate the following:1) The cash they need to close and carry the project2) How hard it is to have a GC stick to what they promise3) How long it may take to exit through a sale

I’m ready to buy mi first duplex/triplex for a house hack and wanted to go the FHA loan route strictly for the low down payment of 3.5% I’ve been self employed for exactly 1 year now, but the issue I’m running into is that every lender I have talked to (over 9 lenders now) have told me I need to have at least 2 years of self employment in order to get an FHA loan or any loan that requires under 10% down (even if I made good money my first year of self employment) I have 780+ credit score, no debt, no loans, no monthly payments on anything.