The house I bought is a Duplex in Raleigh which I will be owner occupying in one side (with a roommate) and renting out the other side.The Duplex is on a street with 14 SFH and 3 other Duplexes. 

Another way is to get references from past landlords, bosses, roommates. 

Two are in Takoma Park,..one is a multimillion dollar apartment complex, one in Derwood which I suspect is not truly a multi, ..there is one in Hyattsville that I think doesnt look so bad.If house hacking is your goal, and you want to be in your stated area, I would suggest maybe the roommate route.

If you don't want to use the income for DTI purposes in obtaining your loan, I would still have written agreements in place with your roommates and I would still have them pay me with a check or money order and deposit them accordingly.

That is basically what my husband did with his first income property (but he had roommates paying above his mortgage for him) and it worked really well.

He wants to move upstairs to the two bedroom with a roommate once it becomes available.

I think I've got the marketing and managment aspects dialed: I'm a professional marketer now and I manage so many people's needs and have been the house manager for every rental/roommate situation I've been in, so not scared of that.

Can you rent to your kids and have them get roommates to help save on dorm expense?...

I haven't had it appraised, but using Zillow or Trulia estimates, I've gained a lot of equity (conservatively it's probably worth 725K).I already am "house-hacking", although I've always just called it, "having a roommate".  

I think for a lot of people it means getting a roommate or living in one side of a duplex and renting out the other.