2-4 Unit House Hacking. What’s best?

[Elijah Householder]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is doing good. Only posted on BP a few times so apologies if this is in the wrong spot.

So my title somewhat says it all. In your opinion, is a 2, 3 or 4 unit property the best to house hack? I know it really comes down to the deal but just curious if anyone is able to throw their 2 cents in what a beginner should look more into?

My thoughts as of right now are to do a 2 unit as I do live in Southern California so the purchase price will be somewhat high for me at least. I have been very fortunate in this recent bull to be able to do about 15% on about a $500,000 property (in the Riverside area if anyone if familiar with the SoCal area). This will leave my mortgage payment around $2,000 a month which I can afford even without a renter. But I am wondering if it would be better to maybe purchase a 3-4 unit property for around $800,000 and put 10% down? This would obviously just leave me really tight if things went south and I had 100% vacancy.

Would super appreciate any advice people have! Again, I know much of real estate investing does come down to the deal and the numbers but just wanted to see if anyone had some advice they could give.

Thank you and I hope everyone is staying safe!