I want to start my REI journey but I wonder if house hacking would be the best option.At the moment I have about 30K ready to invest.

Housing prices in two of our larger cities (Vancouver and Toronto) are also crazy high (eg $1M to buy a starter home)...actually in Vancouver proper at the moment the cheapest home (single family, not strata) is $1.2M...surprisingly (to me) in Toronto the cheapest home on the market is $650K (ignoring some listed for $1 as clearly there is a catch).Our mortgages work differently than in the US, and what we get for rates are only locked in for 1-5 years (typically) and then we have to renew at whatever the current rates are. 

I’m hopeful going into this slow season  because I have traction and great SEO optimization but can’t give any sort of projection at the moment. 

For the moment let's leave out what I paid for the land, because it will vary and in any event it is easy to subtract that amount at the end. 

Now there can be some exceptions for expensing certain carrying costs, but without knowing specifics it's hard to say at this moment. 

As you know, the market it high at the moment.

I’m mainly focused on fix-and-flip projects at the moment, so managing properties isn’t something I’m actively pursuing right now.

The best part is there are no competitors as of this moment.

Local MFA returns are incredible at the moment and I'd like to get in on at least one cycle of them, if possible.At the minimum, then, I'm looking for Phoenix MFA deals... but even more specifically, I'd really prefer that the sponsors be based in Phoenix or -- even better yet -- be from Phoenix!

Then ask if they have a moment to talk.It’s important to ask a consistent set of questions during every reference call.