Or buy a single family and house hack bedrooms or a portion of that property. 

For quick math I have a range of each between: 700/yr to 3% of gross income

Start talking to lenders now, but wait to get pre-approved until you have a job offer with a firm start date.

In addition, you can only OO one property at a time as a primary. 

I own a mortgage company now that does both residential and commercial finance, but I spent years as a commercial banker with both big banks (First Union/Wachovia) and 2 community banks.

This is a great place to learn and further investigate investing in real estate.

They were perfectly acceptable 20 years ago, but now many areas are limited to one guest per calendar month. 

I've worn three hats in the seller financing world (as a property buyer, as a property seller offering terms, and as an investor that buys seller financed note). 

That’s a huge gap.

Zoned SFH and very common setup I am seeing these days.