Moving to Ventura - Thinking of house hacking suggestions rec

[Erik Tsou]

Hi everyone, I've decided to move to Ventura CA in June. I've started my search for houses and I really want to house hack. So thus far there are couple of options that I am considering.

1) Find a house with big lot and build an ADU
- Difficult as I will be building something from ground up.
  - I don't know enough about this process so it is quite daunting
- Big Upfront cost
- Time intensive
- The ADU built would be brand new and most likely will provide good rent and increase the value of the property.   

2) Buy a duplex and fix it up. 
- Low inventory
- Non-permitted builds
- Inheriting tenants? (So far the ones I found all have tenants and it seems like not a lot is willing to deliver property vancant)
- remodeling would most likely be the cheapest.

3) Junior ADU
- Have to get creative, find floor plan that works to convert current living space to 2

4) roomates
- Least desirable to me

What have people been doing for house-hack that have been successful? 

I currently have 2 properties in mind. One is a property that has a large lot. The property itself is old and need some TLC. The location is great for me because it is close to where I will be working in Ventura, and I can take the time to build the ADU as a project. The second property I found is the same distance to work. It is a triplex with one unit non-permitted. the property is more expensive than the first and has tenants. The property has also been on the market for a while, was in escrow a couple times but fell through...I think its because of inspection issues but unfortunately I can't get a hold of the inspection report. Now the preferable way to approach this is to offer below asking and have units been delivered vacant. If that is the case, I think Property #2 will be very good since I'll probably spend 1-2 months getting problems fixed and will be able to rent out the units. (heck...I can live in the unpermitted one).

Well, any input is appreciated.