BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

I would love to have some clarity and steering in the right direction as to the best source for FHA loan information and caveats, as well as any tips for a 22-year-old single investor planning on house hacking for my first real estate investment.

I understand business is slow right now relative to recent years, I'd recommend you get a better grip on being a REI agent.

Even so I would not recommend filing bankruptcy.

CT isn't cheap so if you plan on doing it there you are going to surprised at how poorly you do. maybe in the suburbs I'm not sure but as much as I know people call us from CT and everyone is rich and has lots of money and things are expensive out there. build to rent is a great model. we build 3 story walk up infill and keep it to the residential side. 3 units is the most units before it's commercial and you need engineering, etc. check comparable and things liek that. we came up with this design a year ago and we sold 10 if you want to talk further please DM me happy to connect. there are some great build to rent conferences. we went vertical not horizontal with it to save on build costs and design to fit on any infill lot. this fits on a 3500 square foot lot. most lots in our area are 30x120 or 30x150. in miami where I live now they are 50x100 or so. but any infill lot we can pretty much get this one on. there are some great build to rent conferences coming up too that if you like this topic I'd recommend attending I'm sure you'd learn a lot.  

I plan to use a HELOC but would be interested in the thoughts of others in BPs on this approach or recommendations if there are other ways to financing that I should consider.

Our kids are really young, we would like to put the LLCs in a trust to avoid probate, what do you guys recommend?

I would greatly appreciate any guidance, resources, or recommendations you may have for someone in my position.

From my own personal experience and from others I think most reach the "tipping point" from self managing to using a PM somewhere between 5-15  units, especially if you have a W2 and want to continue to scale. 

@Isaac Terry Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?