I guess I was house hacking before it was a established term. In 2002 I intentionally purchased a two bedroom condo instead of a studio or one bedroom, because it made so much more financial sense to have a roommate to help with the payments.

In 2005, while the condo market was still booming in Portland I sold the condo and invested the profits into four bedroom house. Which I also filled with roommates (I've mostly been in the service industry for most of my working life, so utilizing roommates was the only way could ever afford the payments.)

For a few years in the mid 2000's I was a part time real estate agent (when everybody was a real estate agent or mortgage broker.) But, that all ended with the crash. I always said if I returned to the industry it would be on the investment side. That's always the part really loved.

Banks really don't like my income which is based off of mostly tips, roommates and and an airbnb in my basement. Making it difficult to reuse the eqiuty in my home to re-invest into rentals.

Because of the income issue I have only qualified for a $50,000 equity loan, A fraction of the equity I've built up over the last 13 years.

As of now the plan is to convert my single family home into a duplex. Then, in one year, move down to Tucson while renting out my Portland home. Six months after that, I believe the house would be eligible for cash out refinance situation (this is how I understand it from my research. If I'm wrong please feel free to correct me on any of these details. That's one of the reasons I'm here.)

From there, I plan on using the money from the refinance to invest in Tucson rentals.

Thanks in advance. :)