Househacking is definitely the way to go to get started... granted I was always told by mentors of mine that living in a property is ideal before going through with a non-owner occupied investment.

Are there any builder websites that might show a # of different property builds that might be optimized for something like owner occupied or tiny multi-family/duplex?

MIP is very high (I live in San Diego) and while I've only been in my home (duplex, owner-occupied) for a little over a year, I have made some upgrades and the local appreciation might have me at around 85% LTV. 

Buying investment property isn't different than buying an owner occupied house in terms of the steps so ultimately you just need someone competent, responsive, who you connect with and who does what they say they will do.

Does anyone know how many unrelated tenants can occupy the downstairs while we live upstairs?

I did a 3% down owner-occupied FHA down payment, and had the seller pay me 3% back towards closing.

Have no idea where you are but buying an owner occupied multifamily (duplex to quad) is usually a terrific wealth builder.

I am looking at multi-family (2-4 units) and house hack it (owner occupied one unit).

I just purchased an owner-occupied property from auction.com is now in the same boat.

This is a 12-unit building - fully residential, 10 are currently occupied.