There is no reason to buy your own first for experience purposes - and the fact you already live there makes it 'owner occupied' if you end up going with traditional bank financing - which will give you better rates, and access to more programs. 

RE has traditionally been a inflation hedge ... 2% The past 15 years was an anomaly pushed by low interest rates and COVID 

Median asking prices in 2024 are at $734,950, an increase of about $35,000 from last year.As small multi-family investors in Queens and Nassau get outpriced, they, like traditional homeowners, tend to travel East or North.

Sounds like you don't have a traditional 1st mortgage on your primary residence, you just have a 1st position HELOC.

It's what I use on STRs and traditional rentals too.

With 2 kids and a third in the near future, we're looking to move again in the next 2-3 years.We have around $15k savings, $45k traditional IRA and $20k in other investments. 

What do you mean by passive investing in multi family?  

Traditionally, the courts give a lot more weight to what actually happened over what is written on paper.

@Evan Polaski No , I am not talking about “ traditional STR play”.

We ended up going the HELOC route on that property for a few reasons. 1) the interest at the time was only 5%, which although seemed high, didn't matter too much with our potential property showing a 18% ROI 2) we leveraged a second home loan with 10% down for that new property, so our HELOC withdrawal was relatively small compared to what would be needed for a traditional loan on a rental. 3) I dont think I will see the rates in the 2% again in my lifetime, so figured I should hold on to that "free money" instead of selling it.