House Hack or Long Term Rental

[Joshua Ellis]

General question for the community as I think I am in somewhat of a unique situation. I live in Wilmington, NC where there has been an enormous increase in the price of homes in the last two years mostly due in part to covid and everyone from NY/NJ discovering how nice the area is. Average price for a 3 bed 2 bath 1300 square foot home is about 300k. There are some surrounding communities about 30 minutes away where you can shave about 50k off of that asking price. I have a good job and about 25k in savings with plenty of free time. I have thought about attempting to house hack a multi unit family property in one of the surrounding areas and being my own property manager/landlord. Would give me a place to live as well because I currently rent an apartment with a roommate for about $950 a month. I like that plan but I may also have an opportunity to purchase a home 7.5 hours away in WV for about 150k. The benefit to that is my Dad lives in the area and already owns about 13 rental properties and would be able to manage that rental property for me. I would need to pay him a fee for property management which would be fine but I would still be living in an apartment not building equity. Thoughts on trying to house hack here vs. investing in a market I think will do well but continuing to rent?

Yearly Income Pre-tax 150k

Debts: Car 600 a month, student loans 715 a month

Additional investments: Roth 500 a Month, 401k 700 a month