Two weeks ago I called on a medium priced single family in a nice part of town asking for information and they never called me back.

@Matt M. is correct, I have two condos in Denver and both meet the 1% rule with conventional rents, and achieve closer to 1.5% when rented as medium term furnished rentals (3-4 months at a time).

I'm starting on the small to medium side with SFRs.

If you're willing to buy properties that need a small to medium level of repairs before being rented, you can buy at a lower price and build in some margin.

Fortunately after calling a medium sized bank (I found fifty thousand dollar property sell price restriction) I called a small bank and they asked for valid documents to run through the automated system.

If your goal is to get 5-10 units fairly quick, i would consider tapping some of your home equity and keeping the rental paid off and cash flowing well.If your goal is to accumulate a small to medium number of properties that are paid off, i would look at banking all of the duplex cash flow for a couple of years and then buy another property.  

I am reading the book 30-day stay around the Medium Term Rental strategy right now and a great hack they mentioned was converting the primary suite into it's own unit if it has a separate entry via a sliding door, etc..

I'm in a medium expensive market with a family and I 'househack'Not all househacks involve having a roommate or bachelor lifestyle in some plex. 

A medium-sized city with an active rental market. 

Some great books for creative strategies if the numbers just aren't wokring:30-Day Stay (medium-term rentals can bring more cash flow than LTRs)Long-Distance Real Estate Investing (you can look for properties out of state)Wealth without Cash (not released yet, but subto or seller financing could be helpful given current interest rates!)