This is one of the best ways to scale a portfolio while keeping low out-of-pocket costs.Big Picture: The Best Move for You•If you need funds now, a HELOC in your name makes sense—but keep the rental in your personal name to avoid triggering the due-on-sale clause.

Capacity and Tolerance. 1) Capacity: how many people can you comfortably fit in the property, is there room to add more, or add more value to the tenants to increase rent.2) Tolerance: How many people are you comfortable living with, if there are vacancies are you able to handle that.House hacking is an amazing path to homeownership, and a nice low barrier to entry into self managing your properties.

.: @Patrick RobertsThat's a lot of words to say you're advocating tax fraud since there may be a low likelihood of getting caught... 

I invite seasoned investors to share their experience buying their first 2-4 unit properties. here are some questions to base your response/story1) how did you find your first property ?

a lot of people will poo poo this, but I also live in a market where cash flow is low, property taxes are high and properties are expensive (which is a relative term).

Green for low and red for high property values.

Last two years I averaged $4300 for the season.

Conservative and low risk. 

You can bring in more investors or use higher leverage if you are currently doing low LTV

The current rents are really low because the tenants are responsible for doing any and all repairs on their buildings (which in my opinion contributes to the poor condition of the buildings).