After changing careers and finally getting settled in a new house I am reading the books again. 

IRS Publication 527 is a useful guide.If you rent the house out long-term, you’ll depreciate the asset over a 27.5-year period.

Is this a unique form of house hacking, where the rental income from our owned properties covers the rent of our new rental home?

I don't want to buy a house that need major roof work.   

If you’re looking for good cash flow you might want to consider properties in some of our cities as there are a lot of housing voucher clients looking for housing and the some of the programs pay reasonably well.

There is demand for this type of housing, and buyer-landlords can achieve a decent return on investment with new properties while benefiting from long-term appreciation.While Worcester may not offer the vast expanses of land seen in other cities, thoughtful development and strategic investment in Build to Rent projects can meet the needs of residents and provide solid returns for investors.

As a beginner, you can learn a lot from your uncle with a few rentals in another state or a co-worker who's on their second house hack.

I think you might put yourself up to legal risk from the family once they find out they aren't getting the house and take you to court for them singing under duress or another circumstance where they were not of right mind. 

Literally maybe 3 month old article and really contradicts a lot of what you said:https://www.benoitproperties.com/news/miami-housing-market-s...

You could do that for 3-5% down.. live in it for a year to meet typical requirements for use… then move into a new house, and ‘voila’ - you bought your second (multi-family) rental for 3-5% down instead of 20-25%.It is entirely possible though that you will face debt to income issues on your first rental if your lender wants to see a year or twos worth of rental history before counting your rental income to offset your debt payments…so beware of that.Otherwise you may have to look at creative financing… maybe bringing in a money person where it was a short term investment for them, like “I’ll give you 8% on your money (versus the 4-5,% you could earn from the bank CD) if you will partner with me on this purchase.”