San Diego is not for everyone with the higher barrier to entry but there are certainly less costly ways to get started such as house hacking with little to no money down depending on loan type for both single family homes and multifamily properties.Be sure to consider total ROI instead of just initial cashflow numbers and consider the market/ economy and stats for the last several decades instead of just the last decade as most markets did well in last 5-10 years.

I am also in search of a hard money lender who can assist me in making a cash offer and later refinancing it into a traditional loan.

That would be a family and friends type of loan that you're looking for .

However, there are Non-QM loans that are either full doc or bank statement loans that will allow up to 80% cash out. 

*If anyone was willing to quote me a ballpark for the below situation, I'd greatly appreciate it.After Repair Value: $165,000 Purchase Price - $90,000 Renovation Budget - $35,000 Loan: $125,000 (75% LTARV)Zip: 17103*If anyone feels compelled to ask, "if you don't trust him, why lend him money?" 

I would like to have 100% equity in the homes but dont have much capital, would I be able to get a 0% down or maximum 3.5% down for a hard money loan.

Through conventional loan with a local lender at 5% downpayment, financed with LLC income.

I’m currently living here with a roommate and have a 3.3% interest rate loan on 300k and still owe about 280k.

b. what if I use a hard money loan for the down payment so I'm only paying interest every month for a few months? 

We have two new construction projects getting ready to break ground, 2 cash out delayed financing loans in process, and almost at the end of our first debt cycle, getting ready to emerge into the next phase of our growth stage.