I purchased my first home for 3bed 2 bath 1404 sq/ft ranch with detached 2 car 96k in a B neighborhood 45424, put 10k into for reno (all DIY) with a presumed sale tag between 125-130k sale/ 950-1150 rent per comparables.

We are not ruling out detached houses, but when we look towards houses, we are looking more turnkey.We currently have been looking all over Denver metro to get a feel for pricing and rent ratios, so we haven't narrowed down to a specific zip code quite yet.

Sorry, I didn't realize that down payment was an obstacle in getting approval for a larger amount.

My biggest obstacle has been securing the financing.

I understand being gone so much will be a huge obstacle to overcome, but I am very hungry for passive cash flow and really want to start my investing career while I'm younger.  

I would suggest that if you are going to house hack, why not do it with a single family detached?

I'd love to know how you overcame those obstacles.

Not sure where else you would recommend.The garage is detached from the structure@Christine Kankowski

I found a duplex and the cash flow looks promising. the concern that I have is that the duplex has a 2.5 detached car garage. 

I think there are still several obstacles for these investors to realize their huge profits with without risk but from what I can tell HOA liens have now gone from about 20-30 cents on the dollar to closer to 90 cents on the dollar so honestly the time to buy those HOA liens were prior to the courts decision but that is when it was much more risky.