For example (and just picking arbitrary numbers here), let's say:Current living expense: $1,800/monthHouse to hack mortgage: $2,000/monthRental income from house hack: $1,600/monthExpenses (including $400 leftover on mortgage): $800/monthIn this example, I'd be losing $800 out-of-pocket per month, but I'd be able to save an additional $1,000 from my day job over my current situation that I could use toward a second property.

Do you plan on flipping house full time or will you have  a "side job"?

That becomes the seed bed of your portfolio. 

Looking for areas that are driven by future job growth and strong leadership. 

Determined by drivers like job supply and renter demographics. 

My job requires me to be equidistant from downtown SFO and Silicon Valley and so I am considering investing in Hayward, CA.

I'm a 23 year old working with my dad and hopefully turning this into a full time job (in engineering now but would love to transition to real estate full time). 

Thank you for the advice it really made my job a lot easier.

I think you’ve got to find a secondary or tertiary market with a ton of population growth and jobs coming.

At the end of the day that is my job (yes an estimator), so mainly my job is looking at a project and coming up with a price and make a profit after all the work is done.