To house hack or not? Helping my mom

[Ian Thompson]

I just got married, we live in an RV currently by choice (On parents land), I make $70k currently but have to drop the job because we absolutely cannot stand Michigan weather any longer and want to live in KY,TN,NC, or AR.. (Haven't decided yet but good thing our house has wheels) We will hit the road in 3 months to scout property's... We have excellent credit but with me quitting, my wife not working, and only $20k saved we're not in the best place to buy property I want.. (15+ acres where we can have a house for us and future kids, along with a house for my parents, they will be moving too just in a couple years).. My wife wants to have kids yesterday so we don't want to wait too much longer... My moms house is worth $500K, she still has a mortgage on it though.. She offered to buy the Out of state property and we would "Rent" from her... 

Question... What if before Mom did that, we bought a Multi-family? Then she could have extra income going into retirement... Would she still qualify to purchase the out of state property? after just getting a mortgage on a rental unit? That's my question... 

End goal is a homestead for all of us, but! If we can house hack before then.. Would that be better? Or not?