Traditional bank loans might not be in the cards just yet due to your income history, but don't let that stop you.Enter the world of hard money lenders and private money lenders.

I put them in an LLC whenever I can but I've not found a traditional lender that will allow it.

@Jacob Lopez, as others noted, house hacking is not really a cash flow play, in a traditional sense, since you are effectively removing 33-50% of the property from the rent roll.If you plan on living in a unit for a couple years, then holding longer as an investment, I would underwrite it as an investment.  

@Mike MutabaziIf you are planning on getting traditional financing for each property, then you will need to find some way to provide a down payment.

Mid term rentals should be more flexible than the traditional LTR, but it's ok to have an agreement,  and a damage deposit. 

This would be used as an alternative to the traditional wholesaler's assignment agreements.  

We also heard a lot of chatter and a lot of interest in some traditionally less sexy, midwestern markets like Kansas City, Columbus, etc.

@Gary KaneSelf-directed IRA allows you to invest in non-traditional investments such as real estate.

Ok, if I understand everything I need to do correctly (from the above answers and other info), this is my plan so far:To do now:Set up a Solo 401k (with Mark, Brian, Dmitriy, or someone).Set up 6 bank accounts inside the 401k: "pre-tax", "Roth", and "after-tax" for me, and those same three for my wife also.Rollover my Traditional IRA funds to my "pre-tax" 401k account.Rollover my wife's old 401k funds to her "pre-tax" 401k account.In-plan rollover of both of our "pre-tax" 401K funds to the "Roth" 401K accounts (tax will be owed).2016 Employee contributions: Transfer $18k from my business account to my "Roth" 401K and $18k to my wife's "Roth" 401K.Also transfer a small amount from my business account to my wife's checking account as the remainder of her pay (maybe $2k).

It's a traditional 401(k) plan covering a business owner with no employees, or that person and his or her spouse.