If you are willing to live in urban areas you may want to talk to a local bank in your market and see if they have any incentives or grant loans for certain areas.  

I'm hoping to do an FHA 203(k) within the first half of this year and eventually rent it out after living in it for about 2 years.

SonuI have lived in Final for 6 years.

A few years later, I hired a local Wyoming attorney to create a living trust.

Hopefully you already worked this out.Aside from HML, there's also an option to do a live-in-flip, where you live in the house for a year and renovate it slowly.

Another idea for housing economy if you have an office is to rig your office to live in but not sleep in. 

I tend to stay in my lending and financing lane lol Hi ClaytonMany thanks for the kind offer, Since this is a rental property, my living home insurance(which is way less even though my living home is value about twice the rental property) does not cover landlord insurance. 

Quote from @Kyle Barnhart: I live near Phoenix and looking to invest locally.

You said that you are applying for an FHA loan so it sounds as though you'd be living in one unit. 

South Carolina (where I live) is a great state for many things but not rental real estate.