If I occupy one room, can I have a room mate occupy the other and pay rent?

Plan to live there, at least for a while, with as many roommates as you can stand (live for free or better). 

Of course you can house hack with a SFR by, essentially, having a roommate, but personally I would want my own space especially if I owned the place.

I own a house myself and have a roommate paying some rent, but I can't rightly say that I've invested in real estate yet.  

With the right layout most people will deal with this regulation by having roommates, who while they may have run of the house in theory, stay within their area, even if it isn't a legally defined unit.

And completely agree that house hacking is another great way to get started if you don’t mind roommates.  

@Yuriy Skripnichenko and @Lana Lee Do either of you know anyone who has rented out rooms in their primary residence (i.e. a roommate) while they continue to live there? 

I think it’s better to rent, but if you’re fixed on buying, I think getting roommates in a townhouse would be the best bet.

My bf/gf and roommate tenants (same thing basically) move about 8x more often than singles or marrieds and give me more drama to boot.  

I currently own one property that I rent out to some roommates (almost like salvage renting) so that has been going well and have thought about buying another property but working the job I have now feels like I don’t have the time to really dive deep into real estate and continue to grow and learn about the industry and find the best deals.