Rents will likely start to increase again in 2025 is my thought, but you probably can't wait until then to buy as home prices will have moved up again.   

@Bruce Tieuhouse hacking is a great way to get started and I think your plan is great - but I would reset your expectations on the numbers:1. the goal of a house hack isn't to live for free. 

After 10 days they must commence a lease and start paying rent to hold the property. 

It's a tough way to start.

I'll probably start looking there. 

Hello,I'm new to the field of real estate investment and eager to learn as much as possible to get started.

Hello all, I am just starting my journey with real estate.

So I started trying to get creative on how to create a win-win-win for all.Here’s how it went down:I got the sellers to agree to an asking price of $180k, a full $40k over what they originally wanted.In the offer, we included a seller credit of $34k.This strategy allowed me to cover the extra commission for both the buying and selling agents and ensure the seller got exactly the cash they wanted should they have sold it at 140k.With the seller credit, this reduced my total out-of-pocket expense to just $6k.I used a commercial DSCR loan product with a local bank.

The local facebook groups are a great place to start 

I have been thinking of starting with flipping a home and gaining experience on what it is like.