I’ve personally house hacked in the Irving park neighborhood in Chicago with a multifamily so not completely relatable experience to what you’re looking to do but hopefully can provide a few insights.If you go with the suburbs in a SFH, you could rent by the room and presumably increase cash flow.

Aside from the Debt-to-income ratio and risk benefits you've already mentioned, it also just helps keep everything organized.

Trying to bend the rules will always come back to get you and could end up costing you more at the end of the day than any benefits you gain from it.

Hey all, I’m in the GTA region of Ontario and relatively new to BP.

Is it solely related to flippers wanting to keep costs low? 

A restaurant or café with outdoor dining could thrive in this environment (there are not so many around the area), benefiting from the steady local traffic while also enhancing the appeal of the residential units.

I used a relator, found a good house and bought it.

You will incur two types of costs when it comes to a flipA) Costs directly related to the propertyB) Overhead costs(I.E.

Renting it out would let you keep the asset, earn some extra cash, and possibly benefit from tax deductions like depreciation.

There are benefits to using the LLC, holding company, or trust, but they all come with costs and add complexity to your life that is often unwarranted.