For many, starting close to home is attainable, but not for everyone.

@Jairhad HemmonsI am not an expert at this matter, but based off the basic knowledge I attained from being on Biggerpockets, here is the situation:I don't think you can use the house as a down payment to pay for another property, you will still need to have actual cash to use as a down payment, especially with the stringent policies on investment properties set up by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I have been looking for multifamily homes (specifically duplexes) to househack in my target markets and they appear to be pretty scarce and I was wondering if there are other types of properties that I should be looking for to househack or if I should change to markets where multifamily homes are more attainable.

Some are seeing terminal IRRs as low as one-half what they were just a few years ago.The one panel that truly intrigued me was the panel on attainable and affordable housing. 

I love that idea of house hacking a BRRRR with a 5% down payment and makes it much more attainable.

Here are my top free resources:US Census Bureau American Community Survey 1-Year Data API:https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-1year.htmlThis'll give you annual MSA-level data for so many metrics: industry diversity, household income, household makeup, educational attainment, unit counts, vacancy, median rents.

Are you able to attain an FHA loan within a major, metro area?

The downfall to this is the slow scaling process that I would have, only 1 property a year will be attainable, unless I'm completely missing something. 

Type A neighborhoods with little to no value-add tend to sell over asking price from the demand of owner occupants.As @William Allen mentioned, deals can definitely be attained with work. 

Before you look for the operator or cohost, I would get crystal clear (not to quote Brandon Turner) with your criteria, and then get set up with an investor agent that knows and does the market you are looking to target and can help you work towards an attainable goal.