Hi Marcia, the house already has off street parking and a long driveway wrapping around the house.we do have a storage unit, but wanted to switch to using these garages , that do not lead into the house, to save on costs.

Otherwise FHA or Conventional are your options if your income is over the USDA limit.FWIW, I would go FHA or Conv and save your VA benefit for the next one. 

Initially, my idea was to house hack in order to save money for a nicer home in the future.

With my savings I know it can be done, but I have so much to learn first!

Cost us on the back end at sale time, and could have saved a little bit of "extras" along the way to help mitigate those costs.

I recently finished "Set for Life" and in it the author suggests keeping your investment savings (not your emergency savings) in the stock market so you can ride the general upward slope of the economy before you utilize it.

In regards to closing costs, I should have said "closing costs & prepaids" - but either way this is money I have paid out of pocket already for my single family primary residence, and money I will have to pay out of pocket when purchasing the multi.The root of what I am trying to accomplish is trying to use the capital I have "stuck" in my single family I.L.O saving and waiting or using another creative financing avenue.

Trying to save up a "standard" 25% down for a property in San Francisco is quite a big different that doing the same in East Birmingham.   

This site has been saying we are at the top of the market for almost 3 years now.I almost want things to tank just to save my eyes the pain of constantly rolling them at every freaking Nostradamus on this site. tldr: YAWN..............

Hey jake, i encourage you to fix your credit and save money before proceeding.