This requires 10% down and you typically just have to live in the property for 14 days out of the year.

I live in western washington. 

.- The townhouse you're moving into is currently a rental, but you plan to live there two years for the 121 exclusion.

If you are not planning to live in the property, then you are not going to qualify for an FHA loan.

This works best when the seller is motivated and open to flexible terms.4.BRRRR Strategy (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat)– If you find the right undervalued property, you can finance the rehab with short-term funding and then refinance into a long-term loan, pulling most or all of your money back out.5.House Hacking– If you’re open to living in your investment, you can use an FHA loan (as low as 3.5% down)to buy a multi-unit, live in one unit, and rent out the others.

Focus on absentee owners and start with the ones who live the farthest away and only own one property in the area since they have the least use for the property.You can also drive for dollars, looking for anomalies of disrepair and then look them up in the tax records and use a site like Spokeo to do cheap skip tracing.

I live in the Washington DC area, and I would love to connect with anyone willing to. 

Quote from @Kornelius Friske: We have a STR located in peoria AZ. it's 6 beds (garage conversion) and about 3900 sq ft in total. our energy bill last month was $450 and has been hovering in the $350-$450 range since we went live in august.

I wanted a house for myself to live in and I had been living with parents for two years to save money.

I'd level up with a BRRRR, live-in flip, or house-hack before jumping into a challenging renovation.