First time home-buyer/house-hacker

[Matt Toeneboehn]

Hey everyone,

I'm an active duty, military physician and have an upcoming move in JUN2022. I'm tired of paying rent and hope to house-hack and continue to invest in rentals in the future. I'm married, have 3 kids, and a dog and think we will need a 3 bed/1-2 bath to feel comfortable as our live-in unit. I do not have orders yet but we will likely be moving to an expensive area (ie. California, Hawaii). More than likely we will only be living at that location for 1-2 yrs max before moving but I plan to hold onto the property and continue to rent it out. We have excellent credit, no debt and approximately $25,000 to put towards a down-payment if necessary with additional reserves. I should be able to utilize physician as well as VA loans for a low down-payment. I've been doing a lot of research via books and podcasts and feel like it should be possible but the market seems difficult right now and a duplex in the San Diego area is hard to find under $800,000, which is a hard pill to swallow for our first house purchase. I recently listened to BP episode #560 and am currently thinking the rent-by-room strategy might be a good idea after we move out of a single family house if I'm unable to find a good deal on a duplex...   I don't feel comfortable renting out rooms with my kids in the same house.  My long term vision is to obtain a significant passive income from multi-family properties to allow me to cut back on hours (I love my job and don't want to quit!) and possibly work part-time so I can spend more time with family.  Any other ideas or strategies that I should consider?  Thoughts? 

Thanks for your help!