I'm trying to understand how house hacking is so profitable, putting down so little money, 3.5% or 5% would make for a hefty mortgage payment wouldn't it?

I usually search craigslist and FB market place and put mine a little lower to get more qualified applicants. 

(They only put the crane up when the project is around 50% sold out already.)

This only works in very specific / certain conditions, and it still has lots of risk. 

I post 2 videos a week for development and look at lots all over and talk about it and post on every platform. it's all I do. sounds like you have a lot going on so I'd decide what you really want and take the risk. 

Hey @Jason Cory - Appreciate you putting together...but there is a lot of data there and it's pretty hard to read through it all...maybe consider putting into a graph

I can't figure out how they are running the numbers so that I can put it in my spreadsheet and can figure out if each property on which I want to make an offer makes sense.

I've put in all the systems to make managing it from afar a breeze.

I put a security deposit down of 10k.

There isn't much risk there and it's par for the course for cheap properties being bought/sold with land investors.