Duplex in DMV area or house hacking - Options? Budget ~900K-1M

[Carlos J. Arguello]

Hi! 

I'm brand new here, always curious about real estate and I decided to take the plunge and start looking for options. My ideal scenario would be to get a duplex, rent one unit and live in the other for 2 years or so. I'm not looking to renovate, so at least a place that would be rentable out of the bat would be ideal. I would do this through a conventional loan. Also, Ideally one of the duplex units is a 2 bed, as I'd like to live there for a while. Also, I'd rather buy on the west side of the river, so not DC SE, for the same reason.

Any advise on what locations to search, and what I can reasonably expect with my budget (<1M)?

I know that a multifamily might be hard to come by, so I'm also thinking about house hacking. Any advise on how go about doing that? I'm thinking an English basement, hopefully with the possibility of conversion in the future.

Thanks!