Should I eliminate this markets from my list?

Eliminate any possibility that this isn't about a delusion before you do anything else.

In my mind, a house hack should create a very low ($500 or less) monthly housing expense or eliminate your housing costs all together.

This defers it doesn’t eliminate itNo tax advice given

That would increase the cash available for the all-cash investment and eliminate, I think, any danger of mortgage boot. 

Middle America would probably crumble as these states tend to be the biggest supplier of servicemembers, and it’s often generational.Homelessness would skyrocket if we truly “drained the swamp” and eliminated the jobs that really don’t need to exist.My crazy high taxes likely help pay for some servicemembers to retire on a yearly basis, but on that money you can’t comfortably live in a HCOL. 

Either way, you should have tenants sign new leases before you close, eliminating any contract issues.

With house hacking you either drastically reduce or completely eliminate this expense.

Bombed the house with odor eliminators and have an air purifier.

So instead of searching for X bedrooms in X zip code within X price range, I sort of wish I could eliminate the price variable and just search for "xxx price per square foot" in zip code yyy.p.s.fwiw, I am technically "in".