Essentially all they need to come up with is one month's rent, which is typically the upcoming month anyway, and they walk away clean - no lawn care, no utilities, nothing - and we assume the risk if the property takes longer than 1+ month to rent.

@Kerry Baird so it would essentially subtract any remaining portion of the HELOC from the cash out?

If you hire a bird dog, you can probably give them the parameters of what you want done, give some training and convey the results you want.What you cannot do, is control their time, provide them tools/electronics, etc.

Essentially, if you buy a multi-unit property, say a duplex, you can live in one side and rent out the other side to help pay your mortgage/expenses.

Networking here can be helped by some tools under the network tab above. 

Starting with a plan and understanding the ins and outs of the tools you have at your disposal (I.e. the VA Loan) is also critical.

I've got a draft business model which is essentially helping people house hack.

These folks are essentially private lending institutions so they more or less get to decide their terms.

I'm familiar with the two year self-employment income averaging and I'm wondering if this would be different or essentially the same.I'm paying myself a large W-2 from my S-corp which would be good for getting approved.

This is a great place to learn and network.The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.