It's a subject-to deal where the owner owes $165k on the mortgage at a 3.5% rate.

Based on your financing options, you are going to be limited to 4 units or under, given 5 and over become commercial lending, so no FHA or owner-occupied options.I am assuming you plan on living in one of the units, but to be clear, that will be a requirement for at least 12 months, under most mortgages.You may get other's posting about talking with wholesalers or trying to find off market deals.  

I'm a first-time investor looking at purchasing my first property for a house hack!

They were commercial notes (5 year fixed, 20 year am) at 85% LTV.

At your suggestion, I went on an looked for Tri-State REI and Tri-State RE and not so surprisingly, there are groups for both in the area.

At first glance though, it doesn't seem there's been much appreciation there in the last 5 years.

Hello, I am looking at building a primary residence with one of the large builders in my area.

They did also send me a 1099 at end of year, so be prepared to pay taxes on that money if they do it like that.  

Interestingly enough, I just looked at the sellers insurance policy and it's actually for *2* units, not 3.  

Our minimum purchase price is 75k for 1-4 units in most states, not sure if that helps at all.