Renting to a family in NOVA suburbs or renting rooms?

[Aditya Maini]

I am considering buying a townhome with either the goal being to rent it out to a family or renting it room by room. How do you go about figuring out which would be more profitable/in-demand? With renting out the whole home, I would likely be looking out in the suburbs (Springfield, Manasssas, Chantilly, etc). But with a strategy to renting out rooms, I'd want to look for homes closer to DC or the metro lines. What's your take on this?