First property advice

[Brendan Jones]

I am very new to learning about real estate and am looking for advice on my first home and how I can best use it to help offset my mortgage and generate cash flow. My fiance and I are in a unique situation as I play baseball professionally, and she works online and plans to live with me during my season. The baseball season lasts 6-7 months, and I am given free housing during this time, wherever I am currently assigned to play. Our current plan is to purchase our first home and live in it for 2-4 years before moving to a new home and using this first property as a rental, so my fiance and I are currently in the market for a home that we could use as our residence during the offseason and then use as a short term rental or something like that while we are away for 6-7 months. We are wondering what would be the best option to do with the property during this 6-7 month period, whether that be Airbnb or what other short term rental options might there be that could make more sense? We are also wondering whether it would be better to try and find something located closer to Nashville within 5-15 minutes that may not be as nice of a home or property for our budget or find something that is around 20-30 minutes from Nashville in the White House Tn area, but a nicer home within our budget. We did not know if our proximity to Nashville would be more important because of the fact that we would be doing a short-term rental with the property for half of the year and then using the property exclusively as a rental in a few years? Would love to hear any thoughts, advice, and input!