House-hacking vs Renting in a hot market

[Charlie Schneider]

My wife and I are looking to buy our first home and want to make use of the house-hacking method to lower our expenses and start to build real wealth. We would love to stop renting and paying someone else's mortgage. We work in Los Angeles, so trying to find a deal in a hot market has been challenging. Assuming we qualify for an FHA loan with 3.5% down, with a tenant living in one unit, all the duplexes I've run numbers on have come up with a negative cashflow of about $1,000/mo for the first 7 years on average. Is negative cashflow a bad thing if we occupy one unit? Now starting to wonder if continuing to rent while investing in an out-of-state market would even be a better option! I'm keeping my mind open, looking for any advice!