Have a large emergency fund that you can draw on for several months if. you ever are in between jobs (an amount that will cover your side of the mortgage for several months).  

Now the down payment from the homestead buyer wouldn’t cover a PMP’s loan.

Economy of scale kicks in and they cover each other and still leave cash flow.

Ideally the rent from the other three units will cover most of your living expenses (ie 'rent') for your own unit while you are living there.

Although it is harder to find cashflow today, investing for cashflow will cover a lot of the risk in a challenging market.  

Rentals create cash flow, and that's what we want as real estate investors, but you need cash on hand for unforeseen circumstances.The AC needs to be replaced, that's $7K to $10K or more depending on the size of the house and if you have one rental, it will eat all your cash flow, same to replace a roof, etc, or if tenant trash the home, you need money to fix it again.To me personally a nice rental portfolio that is healthy consists about 10 units, so if you have an issue with a house the portfolio can cover the repairs and still healthy, but when starting you need to have cash on hand just in caseYes, there are multiple strategies you can use to hack your way to buy your first rental with minimum cash, but I would start wholesaling or fix and flip a few deals to create that cash as fast as possible

I think I would therefore, not allow a tenant to sign a lease more than 1 month before the move-in date - that way the security deposit can be used for damages if I lose any rent after the move-in date while I am trying to find a new tenant; and the security deposit only covers 1 month.

This structure seems to work best for house hackers looking for roommates in their friend group to help cover the mortgage.

Partner Driven financed the N Pasadena Ave deal using its own capital, covering the $162,000 purchase price and the $1,460 renovation costs.

and this is all after the departure of the "Foreclosure King" which was covered or way over covered by the local, totally unbiased (HAHAHA!