San Diego is not for everyone with the higher barrier to entry but there are certainly less costly ways to get started such as house hacking with little to no money down depending on loan type for both single family homes and multifamily properties.Be sure to consider total ROI instead of just initial cashflow numbers and consider the market/ economy and stats for the last several decades instead of just the last decade as most markets did well in last 5-10 years.

b. what if I use a hard money loan for the down payment so I'm only paying interest every month for a few months? 

I would like to have 100% equity in the homes but dont have much capital, would I be able to get a 0% down or maximum 3.5% down for a hard money loan.

I’m currently living here with a roommate and have a 3.3% interest rate loan on 300k and still owe about 280k.

Through conventional loan with a local lender at 5% downpayment, financed with LLC income.

I've used NSS lending as a broker before and completed one loan with Loan Source LLC.   

I am a union electrician and due to how jobs are getting a loan is a bit of an issue.

We have two new construction projects getting ready to break ground, 2 cash out delayed financing loans in process, and almost at the end of our first debt cycle, getting ready to emerge into the next phase of our growth stage.

DSCR loan options will qualify you based on the market rent for the property - this can be helpful if you can support projected rent above the mortgage payment.

If someone pairs this with a VA or FHA loan product they can play this game with low or no money down.