only stayed at my house hack two years, in my opinion house hacking is the most flexible living strategy. 

“Live” in your rental unit.  

Live in one unit rent out the other is a great idea, its not a strategy. 

if you can live in it for a few years and then break even when you move out, that's a huge win. 

Just points out how ludicrous it is when people with no experience, knowledge and capital believe that by watching upteen hours of puff videos or paying $20k - $50k for telephone access to a failed salesman reading from a script will enable them to uncover properties selling for a fraction of their value and obviously overlooked by the real estate professionals and full time investors active every day.   

Could you get a HELOC while you still live there for $200k? 

Most people rush in with no roadmap.Since you’re a first-time buyer and plan to live in one unit, you’re in the perfect position to use house-hacking to build wealth safely.

Say you got a neighborhood in suburban Georgia with a certain type of industry in the area, well, okay, cool, but you're gonna have a 24-year old recent Berkley graduate still living with their parents to manage the property!

@Tiffany Maloch  I live in CA although I invest in VT, where I grew up and still have family. 

There are a few strategies you could begin with.Buy a property with 3.5% down live in it for a year and rent it.