House hacking SFH in Durham - Research Triangle Park area

[Vaishaag Panegal]

Hi folks,

My wife and I are new to the world of real estate investing. Currently, we have a townhouse in Charlottesville, Virginia. We are currently house hacking our 2 spare bedrooms (while we live in the master) and we have enjoyed being a landlord. Our tenants are good (thanks to our diligence in screening them). We're looking to rent out this townhome in Q1 of 2023. We are both full-time engineers by profession and we would like to keep our investing journey passive. Since my wife's employer is calling her to work from the office, we're moving to the Durham area in 2023.

We're looking to buy a new primary residence (3B/3B SFH, not older than 20 years, inside $450K) in Research Triangle Park (RTP), Durham area. We want to follow the same strategy of using a low down payment (5%) primary residence loan, house hack, and move out after 1-2 years. Use the cash saved from house hacking to buy the next primary residence, rinse and repeat.

The issue with this strategy is it is almost impossible to find properties where the rents break even with my 5% down primary residence mortgage payment. Even if rents go up, it will not match the 5% down payment monthly mortgage payment in 1-2 years time. Even if I get creative (add another bedroom etc.), i do not see myself cash flowing after 1 year in the Durham area with the rent I collect after renting the entire house. 

I have been looking at neighborhoods close to the RTP area: Woodcroft, Hope Valley Farms, Woodlake, Parkwood, Bradbury, Brier Creek, etc.

Any comments on these Durham neighborhoods? Any suggestions? (My budget is $450K)

There are a few options I am thinking with respect to how to proceed:

Option 1. Buy a property in a good neighborhood and count on appreciation. Use the house hacking strategy to reduce my mortgage expense. After 2 years, buy a SFH investment property with a 20-25% down payment (using either HELOC from the equity built in the new home and the cash saved from house hacking) outside of the Durham area or areas where there is cashflow at the time.

Option 2. Buy a property in a good neighborhood that has a basement which can be used like an Airbnb (separate entrance, etc.) and rent out the other spare bedrooms. Do rent by the room and move out after 1 year. This may cashflow. Rinse and repeat this strategy (i.e. Airbnb + rent by the room) for my next primary residence. The downside with this approach is properties with basements are very rare in the area.

Option 3. Buy a distressed property and flip it or BRRRR it. This is my least preferred option as I am not ready for this yet.

I am curious to know what the BP community thinks. Any advice/suggestions are welcome! 

As I will be new to Durham when I move, I am also looking to join meetups in the Durham area and find mentors whom I can help with my analytical skills as an engineer!

To reiterate, my long term goal is continue passively investing - buy and hold single family homes that cashflow and appreciate. I am still living in Virginia and plan to move to Durham in Q1 of 2023. I have not considered long distance investing yet, that is something I will consider after I read David Greene's book. I am actively listening to the BP podcasts and just completed Brandon Turner's The Book on Rental Property Investing.

Cheers!