If my spouse wasn’t opposed to moving I would try to buy a new house hack every 12-15 months and use low down payment owner occupied loans for as long as it made sense.

is that a combination of larger down payments + paydown over the past few years? 

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

You end up having to sell to someone with higher down payments, better credit, better operating plan, and 100% investors who never want to pay top prices.  

I cash flow them to buyers on lease options with a hefty option payment up front to me.

Ability to repay - can you as the borrower afford the payments based on the loan amount.Typically they will not take into consideration the mortgage on a new property that has not been taken out as that is new.

You'll likely need a higher down payment if you can find anyone willing to finance something like this as a first time investor; many require some level of rehab experience at the very least.

They have failed to renew my entities with the Secretaries of State multiple times, have billed me wrong amounts, and GREATEST OF ALL, have cost my business ~$50K in cumulative TAX PENALTIES due to negligence in filing for a tax extension, failing to walk me through my tax filings and needed payments, and failing to file an abatement promptly.

The strategy I'm following for my first house hack is to acquire a multifamily property (duplex, triplex, quadplex) or SFH w/ an ADU (or potential for an ADU) as I am mainly looking to simultaneously acquire my first property and subsidize my mortgage payment.

@Marcos Carbi  If you want to allow a payment plan, Tell them this is the best I can do:Pay $xxx cash by tonight at 8pm for November's rent. and then beginning Monday Jan 20, pay $450 each Monday (in cash?