I've looked at all houses that match my criteria. No luck

[Jonathan Barreneche]

Hello,

So I am looking for a multifamily home in the Tampa/St. Pete area that is under $220k. I am doing a VA loan, so I have to live in the property. The goal is to house hack the home. My parent will also be living with me as I need to keep care of her, and she has told me that she will cover the rent cost of the unit that we are living in. So I will be able to run numbers with full possible rental income as all units will be producing cash, even the one im living in.

I have looked at all 75 listing in the past month and a half that fit my aforementioned criteria, but there is no luck. I can rarely get a monthly cashflow of $0.00 dollars. The average home has a cashflow of -$150.00 after I run my numbers with the BiggerPockets rental property calculator. I have even ran hypothetical numbers, where I buy the house for dramatically less than asking price. Or even increasing the rent price by a dramatic amount. Still no luck.

These numbers not working are really starting to bring down my morale, and Im just stuck on what to do. I will be forced to move by middle of January, and I want to find a house to own rather than rent from someone. Is it just a bad time to be buying a house? It seems to be a strong seller market in this area.

Is it a sound idea to go rent out a $500 room until houses come down in price? Or do houses follow the same idea of time in the market, beats timing the market.

Open to any and all advice/opinions