I'm ready to buy a 2-4 plex with traditional financing, moving into one of the units and "house hacking".

It needed light rehab and within 3 mths I was able to refinance it into a traditional mortgage.  

There are a lot of ways of doing this so I am very curious to learn what is working, what would be great if an it were an option and concerns with tradition structures.  

The lender will have to use "non-traditional" credit.  

I based my math on 65% occupancy and it still comes out to being far more profitable than traditional renting..This is entirely new to me and will be my first investment property as I will be PCS'ing to Drum in December.

I've written a few blogs you might find of interest as alternative to "traditional" real estate investing, which most folks I talk to migrate away from due to the extra hassles of managing their own properties, even if they have property management. https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/7993/48729-are...

Hi Christian,I'll be happy to refer you to someone in your area if you can send me a PM with some more of your criteria. 

Then you can get a traditional commercial loan for it.

I had some serious enquiries, so I accepted one and then built the cabin the day before they arrived :)Since then I've been hosting on Airbnb and performing music and really enjoy the vacation rental thing SO much more than traditional land-lording.  

Also ask if you can use a co-admistrator or record keeper to book keep your real estate or other non traditional investments.