Austin house hack without giving up too much privacy

[Matthew Davis]

My wife and I are looking to buy a primary residence in Austin, Texas (3/2 starter, ~1200-1500 sf). We'd like to house hack without giving up too much privacy (i.e., don't want to share our personal unit but okay with tenants in a separate unit on the property). 

Our goal is to get our cost of living down as much as possible and cover most of the monthly expenses and then if/when we move out in 3-5 years for it to produce some breakeven/cash flow so we could hold onto it. Planning on refinancing in a few years if/when rates are lower.  

Current strategies that we've been considering are:

1) Primary residence on an oversized lot + ADU for medium to long-term rental (STR laws seem to be a little tricky in ATX)

2) Duplex

Looking for advice on strategies that I'm overlooking or any advice from others that have done one of the above in the Austin area before. 

[Malkia Ra]

Pre-congratulations on the purchase of your first home.  I'm a huge advocate of house-hacking, and you're definitely on the right track with your thought process.

I ended up house-hacking in a SFH. Converted the large basement into a fully-functional apartment with a private entrance. My renters and I rarely crossed paths. And because I live in the Washington, DC metro area, a very hot market, the rental income from that property alone provided considerable cash flow.

My advice, since you know going into this you want to house-hack, pay attention to the layout of whatever properties you're considering, and factor in the costs of modifications that will be needed in order to make the rental portion of the property as private as possible.