I'd research how much the rich people from NYC are paying and see what kind of houses they're staying in.

House hacking a 4 plex using an FHA loan would be a good way to get in with low money down.

I've been tracing wholesalers in califonia for months, like nothing other state finding individual wholasalers in califonia is quite challenging I don't know if it's because the house prices are too high compared to other markets.

So... the definition of a house hack, I guess.

A lot of the advice I am seeing here and other places seems to oriented towards younger newbies - For ex: - house hacking or BRRR - these are not appealing to me. 

It's running a business NOT renting a house.  

You can make house hacking work anywhere, really.

That could mean working with an investor willing to fund the deal for a share of the profits or starting smaller with a house hack or live-in flip to build credibility, or putting sweat equity into a deal with a partner to learn and build your track record.

For example, I live in Gilbert, AZ, which isn't exactly the cheapest place to live, so if I begin to look for a house here in AZ are the lenders going to want to see 300k-400k$ in liquid assets for me to get approval for a mortgage (as the homes in my area are around 800K-1M)? 

I’m especially interested in learning from those with experience in more expensive housing markets and from people who used really estate as a way to invest for their kids' colleges.