Tempe may rebate you a few cents per square foot of area that you convert from sod to xeriscape.

Give an inch and they'll take a foot.

I currently live in Los Angeles, CA with my wife and our 11 month old child. 

My thought was to "house hack" live in a dublex (if I can find one that I can afford that I could qualify for a lower down payment) and rent the other unit out to get my foot in the door, or find a 2/2 condo/townhome with the same concept.

I just want to try my best to start off on the right foot.

I own a 4 bed room 2.5 bath  2100 sq foot home that can rent for $2100- $2300  monthly  in Tacoma. comps indicate  $345k selling price but owe $220k at the moment.

a 700 foot house is around $70K.. 

Hey Michael,Not quite the answer to your question but just some thought...The trick with building multifamily apartments is getting the land at a good price, so if you already own the lot and it is zoned for multifamily then you are in a great situation.Not expert enough to give you an estimate of costs per square foot but it would certainly appraise much higher than the overall cost of building.The variables here are the land cost and the development costs, the structure costs are pretty fixed unless you build something totally custom and elaborate.

Purchase price: $205,000 Cash invested: $35,000 It's a 1700 square foot 3 bed 2 bath condo.

If you are looking for something simple, getting your foot in the door in this market can be done successfully using any of those methods.