first time home buyer, undecided on strategy, seeking advice

[Solomon Kim]

Hi--I'm new to this forum and new to real estate investment in general. I'll be a first time home buyer and would love to get my housing situation figured out while also leveraging my first-timer status to get my real estate portfolio started off with a home run. After a bit of due diligence, my kneejerk reaction is that house hacking a multifamily home is probably a logical course of action, but I wanted to run it by you all to see what you would do if you were in my shoes. To that end, here are all the pertinent details about my situation I can think of. Thanks so much, in advance, and I'm looking forward to talking with you all!

• I'm a 38-year-old single dude with no dependents (unless you count my adorable puppy), living in the Cleveland area.
• I make about $65k/year from a job that I've had for over three years. I take about $41k of that home.
• I'm currently fixing my credit--according to Credit Karma, my Transunion and Equifax are 587 and 599 and appear to be trending slowly upward. I have one active credit card, which I use to cover my regular expenses, and which I pay off in full every month.
• I have no debt (other than whatever incidentals currently happen to be on the credit card).
• I have no money saved outside of a small emergency fund ($2500) and my 401(k) (currently about $25k)...
• ...but I'm fortunate to be in a temporary situation, wherein I pay no rent. Now that my emergency fund is built, I will be putting $2500 away per month moving forward--I intend to use this money for whatever my first real estate investment move ends up being. Hopefully, the timing of that move is such that it coincides with my credit scores reaching 620 or better.
• I do not want/need a lot of space for myself--I would not be opposed to living in a tiny house except that I want a real bathroom with a real toilet and real plumbing. I DO, however, want my own space, with no indoor common areas or roommates (unless you count my adorable puppy)--sharing a wall in a duplex would be acceptable.
• I would like to quit my job in 2022 and either move on to a different industry or devote myself to real estate investment full time, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I stayed at my job.
• Other than my job, there is nothing tying me down to Cleveland, but I do love it here.