I’m thinking I will get my third deal sometime this year but know after that one I’m gonna have to start getting creative to find deals if I want to speed up my growth and I know the biggest area I lack experience in is marketing.

I used a VA loan to buy the house I currently live in.

No matter what area you are in, I would advise finding a Realtor who understands investing.

I live in North Carolina, every agent that I have talked to said they have never seen anything like the market we are in.

Update: 4 weeks inI contacted 2 Loan officers and 2 HUD consultants in my area.

What areas are you looking in? 

this is an area that I'm VERY interested in.

The other thing to consider is that the city I live in is really incentivizing people to buy and renovate the old houses so even though it is in a historical district you cant go a block without seeing another renovation happening- the city is really pushing permits through faster than one would expect. 

Values have definitely increased in both single family and multi, but the key to house hacking success in my mind is determining your goal budget for what it'll cost while you live in one unit and then to consider whether the place would cash flow from day one if you never moved in.

Define your end goal and work backwards to create a plan that makes sense for achieving that goal.If you have been in the home more than a year or two you should be able to avoid Cap Gains.Another factor to throw in is that properties are selling for very high prices in most areas.