After purchase price, the biggest purely financial factor in a Buy and Hold deal is the interest rate on your loan.I recommend buying a 2-4 unit property and see if you like being a landlord.If you are truly set on the SFH route, find a place where your roommates will cover all/most of your expenses.  

Make sure your city zoning allows 4 unrelated people living in one house.Sure, more people here are working, but a roommate isn't going to want to pay other roommate's bills if they don't have to.

Closed on my first home (ower-occupied for now, house hacking with room mates) just a few weeks ago.

I'm purchasing a home, moving in with a roommate, but also turning the closed off basement with a private entrance into an STR/MTR. 

If you're going to college, it should be easy to find a couple roommates to fill up the extra bedrooms.

I tell them no go on the phone and saves the brain damage of, again showing to someone that can't/won't afford the unit.Finally I tell them we do a credit, eviction, and criminal background check and ask if there would be any issues with this for either them or their roommates.

If it were me, I'd probably buy a primary in ATX with 5% down conventional loan, live in it for a year with roommates, then rent it out when I move to Florida.

I bought the house about 28 months ago as a primary residence (and financed it that way), but had a roommate live there and pay rent.

Yeah, and actually I have a roommate in my unit that pays me rent also, so i'm only a couple hundred bucks shy of what I would see with all 4 rented!

(Testing for antibodies would be a nice criteria for roommate selection.)