I would suggest just that, house hack a 4plex for cash flow, and save for your second creative finance deal and grow from there.The idea here is you should be paying zero for your roof (or close to) before buying a second property.

We are ready to find our first deal.

I do rehabs in San Diego where my purchase price is usually from 900k to 1.3 million and I try to make 20% of the purchase price per deal and try to do 5-6 deals per year (if I can find them which is becoming harder).

Only thing is other than personal finance, what other methods are there for funding, buy, rehab, rent out and hold type deals.

I've worked on a few deals with him and his communication, work ethic, knowledge, and integrity is top notch.If you would like his contact info. please feel free to send me a message and I'll happily pass it along.

Try to look for deals, play the long game, but if the number's don't add up don't feel compelled to do anything now because you'll just feel maximum pain a year out after purchasing. 

We've closed deals on three single-family homes, a 12-unit apartment building, and two 3-unit multi-family properties in prime Philly spots like 19147, 19148, 19123, and 19134.

Let them deal with it, while you look for your next deal.

So that is not even the closing date.I start to think of moving away from this deal but don't know if that's even possible.

This depends on how the deal is structured and what rights and responsibilities you retain vs what you transfer to your current tenant.