Weighing renting and buying in Los Angeles for a primary

[Reza Push]

Basically the LA market is nuts and cannot decide what is the best decision for us. Through Covid we have been staying in a family member's vacant home here in LA and previously rented. Obviously as things open up, we will need our own place. SO's job is on the westside where things are insanely expensive. I have maybe $300k cash on hand.

The way I see it, we have a couple of options:

• Buy a primary SFH that we can rent out at some point for a house hack. Problems are that even up to $1M, it's not going to be a very nice place. I have tried for a year to find these illusive "off market" of "fixer" gems. They do not exist unless you go deep in the hood. Sorry, but I am just not going to live there.
• Buy another rental or two in the other market (or any market, really) I have some SFH and rent a place for ourselves at around ~$4000/month. This is obviously a huge amount of money to spend on an apartment, but allows us to acquire another 1-2 units and increase cashflow, though at a large living cost.

I like the idea of a primary because I can get a HELOC for quick access to my equity as needed. But in this market without spending $1.25M+ I won't be able to live in a very desirable part of town. This would drain my cash reserves, which I don't want to do. I have no problem with a duplex or triplex, but it's the same issue. You'll have to spend ~$1.5M or more to get something decent here.

Surely others of you live in LA and understand trying to balance living in a safe area but also trying to expand your rental portfolio. Interested in what you may be doing.