First off, you will need to decide on your ultimate goal for investing in real estate (house hacking VS out of state investing) and then determine how you want to get involved/start.

Here's the jewel of it.My partner and I are looking to get financing on a Tri-plex in Central FL, we will be splitting the down payment.We'd really love to get into the property with 20% down max if not less, most conventional lenders ive spoken to have said they cant get anything under 25% on an investment property, But I'm determined to find one that can. whether it be DSCR/Rental loan, conventional or whatever products are available to fit with our goals and criteria while stilling giving us some scaling capability as were not looking to stop at this property, hopefully 2 more multifamily properties to acquire in the next year to 18 months!

The Broker's Duties and Owner's Duties should be written clearly for you to determine what is the best choice for you. 

It sounds like the deal is then reliant on the down payment to determine whether or not the property will cash flow.

Asking all of these questions will also help you determine if they know what they're doing when it comes to working with house hackers. 

I plan to use this property as a short term/vacation rental.If the property won't be rentable/placed in service until 2022, I just want to confirm that I am still able to take some portion (as determined by cost seg study) of the 130k invested in 2021 as bonus depreciation in tax year 2022, right?

The criteria I am trying to pindown to help inform my selection process is:Avg MFH Cost, Avg Rental Size, Avg Rent, Avg Vacancy Rate, & County Property TaxesI believe I've been able to determine fairly accurate numbers for Vacancy Rate, & County Property Taxes by Googling, but the others are a bit more elusive.

Since you're doing out of state, the size of the location determines if you can justify the Admin cost. 

I was as prepared as my first day of college, LOST but very determined.

I am curious if you are using the current comps to determine your ARV in 2021 or if you are using comps from before the drastic market increase?