I hope things go well for you in Houston.

Hopefully the high season does well.  

Buying a duplex and living in one unit while renting out the other is also considered house hacking.I hope this helps, and let me know what questions you might have!

I'll pass this on and hopefully it helps 

A few helpful clarifying questions, hopefully help get your wheels turning as well, would be:What are you planning on doing with the property and what is your exit plan?

You can probably secure the hard money with less than a 25% down payment, and then if things go right - 0 out of pocket on the refinance, but you will still need at least some "skin in the game" regarding a little equity/down payment to start.Sharing this article published here on BP last year on this topic - hope it can help too!

I was hoping to get closer to the 70% LTV and get $260k out.

His case worker should be able to talk to him because he's going to be at risk of losing his section 8 support if he can't follow the rules. 

Hopefully that wouldn't require the sprinklers.

This is where you need to really start working the numbers, but hopefully, you can craft a deal around what they want.