I'm looking to do a duplex traditional house hack, living in one unit and renting the other.

Next, once you narrow in on a specific investment strategy, be it traditional rentals, house hacks, STRs, or rent-by-the-room, practice analyzing deals daily. 

Traditionally speaking, You should have an operations account and a sub escrow account for each lease/landlord account. 

The only reasons I can think to continue to do so are (1) the tax benefits gained from investing into a traditional 401k, and (2) potentially using the 401k to fund FI before age 59 (through the Roth IRA conversion ladder).

I am having trouble with getting the funds necessary to secure traditional financing. 

They are not the traditional type of properties investors would buy to BRRRR, but it does cash flow well ($400+ for the townhouse and $800+ for the duplex) and fairly easy to self-manage.

If they are going to be there a while, the more traditional lease agreement makes more sense.

(it just seems like the “fastest” way for me to build a portfolio early on in my life)  I'll often encourage less experienced investors to start with a house hack or traditional buy and hold for their first deal or two.

I'm not locked in to using the VA loan, more inclined to traditional loan for now, and I could attempt to pay cash depending on the price.

Especially in a nice area (like East Cobb), they'll take the ARV of a nice traditional brick house and use it as a comp for their split level that happens to be in the same neighborhood.