Beginner looking for Real Estate Investing Advice

[Garrett Borth]

My wife and I are a young couple and both have high paying jobs (Registered Nurse & Engineer). We were fortunate to graduate college with no student debt and are great at saving money. A little over a year after beginning our careers (Sept. 2021) and not knowing anything about investing, we bought a 3bd/2ba house for $500,000 with 20% down and a 3% interest rate resulting in a mortgage of $2160 (including taxes & insurance). Over the last 2 years we've become more and more interested in real estate investing with the specific goal of becoming financially free. However, with current house prices near us and high interest rates, buying a cash flow positive investment seems impossible where we live (Kitsap County, WA). Even our current house at 3% interest with a $2160/month mortgage could only rent for around $2800/month. We currently have $70k set aside ready to invest and about $118k of equity in our house. According to Zillow our house has appreciated $50k over the last 2 years.

A few beginner questions:

After estimating vacancy, maintenance, and capex expenses, it does not make sense to rent our current house, do you agree?

Should we sell our house and move to a more favorable market for cash flow? If so, where do you recommend?

Should we keep our "relatively" low mortgage/interest rate for our area and start investing out of state?

What strategy would you recommend we start with: Long term SFHs, house hack with a small MFH, BRRRR, or other?

We are both excited to start our path as real estate investors and appreciate any input or advice you're willing to share, thank you!