Better option for new investor BRRRR Austin or House Hack Houston

[Cole Burley]

HI everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any advice would be much appreciated!

My wife and I live in Round Rock, TX a suburb of Austin but I work in Houston during the week, currently I'm using Airbnb for my accommodations. This is costing us about $500 a month plus gas and food for a total of ~$1100. We LOVE the Austin area and don't want to make the move to Houston as this job is temporary (1 more year).

My gut tells me to buy the more affordable property with conventional financing in Houston and rent out the other 2 bedrooms and live for close to or maybe even free while I Airbnb my bedroom when I'm not there, hopefully bringing in some cash flow. I'm just not sure the appreciation is there to make it worth while long term.

BUT..... My goal is to use the BRRRR strategy to acquire a minimum of 2 properties a year over the next 5 years and be able to quit working for someone else. The Austin / San Antonio / Waco area is where we want to be and we are more comfortable investing in our own backyard. Using this method we would need to use hard money financing and be able to find a deal in a VERY competitive market work, which has been extremely challenging.

Am I over analyzing this and trying to make something work close to home when I should just go for what I can get done now while getting my feet wet in real estate at the same time?