I think Columbus is a great place for your first house hack for a few reasons - Its a landlord friendly state, steady housing application, and compared to other cities its affordable(housing prices are rising quickly though right now). 

Lenders want to see a good and steady income for the past 2 years, and I've been a business owner the entire time and by having a good accountant I barely showed any income for the past 2 years.

Each year we are graduating MILLIONS of kids who will NEVER be able to qualify for a mortgage under conventional terms (solid credit, steady employment, 20% down).  

Looks pretty good to me, provided it is an area that you think will appreciate and has prospects for steady job growth.  

If I continue to grow this portfolio at the same slow but steady pace, then by the time 10 years possession has passed on the average property, the accumulated rents will be well over $100,000, the monthly income will be nearing $10,000 and the value of all properties held should be a couple million.   

The real benefit has been a steady W2 income that helped me get my start in Real Estate.

If you're in a desirable area where rents will be steady, I'd say your risk is pretty low as long as you drill down into your numbers and make sure the math makes sense!

You can work from strength when you at least have a steady source of income while you get started.

Since I started researching I have been primarily looking at single-family, mostly because I see them as being more "steady" as a long-term buy and hold.  

Doing a BRRR in Northern CA is a long shot...... you have to have a great network to find those deal and a ton of time and $$ to do all the rehab yourselfYoung, single with a steady job, you have the freedom to do some stuff you wont want to do once you are married, kids etc..... like living in a smaller duplex/triplex with close neighbors, no yard or having actual roommates etc.