Middle Tennessee House Hacking Market

[Josh Abrams]

Hi, I'm currently looking to purchase my first property and house hack in the middle Tennessee area (Smyrna/Murfreesboro) but am running into some problems. I'm open to SFH and multifamily, but in the middle Tennessee market for multifamily, it is tough to find anything even remotely close to a deal. Most of the deals I am analyzing are single family homes - 3bed 2+baths.

Like I said I'm looking to live in one and have roommates who pay rent to cover some or all of the mortgage. The problem I'm running into is that although when living in the property, I'd be able to pay less for my mortgage than I am currently paying for my rent in Mt. Juliet (assuming all other rooms are rented out), I am having trouble finding properties that will cash flow when I move out in a year or two. My goal is to house hack a property every few years, but if a property won't cash flow after I move out, it wouldn't make sense to do so, right?

I'm wondering if anyone is seeing the same thing in the middle Tennessee market, and if so, does anyone have any advice? I don't want to rush into purchasing a property if it won't make sense down the road, but I am also tired of renting and would rather put my money into my own property and build up equity.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!