Some apartments are open to "corporate" housing.#5  Airbnb -  Do NOT mention "airbnb".   

Consider house hacking when rates and prices are a little more balanced with reality.

I work for a local house flipper in the Greensboro area (Winston Salem).

Attend your local REI meet-ups and try to find someone who is currently house-hacking or has house-hacked in the past to learn from their experience.

That way, you keep more in reserves and have more to put towards your next house hack.

Quote from @Rou Odab: Hello everyone,We bought this house, and we're living in it and renovating it.

The rental demand in the area has been consistent, and duplexes offer the flexibility of house hacking or scaling into multi-family investing over time.With your experience in construction and remodeling, you’re already ahead of the game—fix-and-flips or BRRRR projects in Kansas City could be a perfect fit for you. 

I also pay my mortgage for the house I live in.

There could be some real interesting back and fourth discussions to be had on the pro's and con's and risk's of these sub $200k houses in the Midwest, but I've been through thousands of tenants at thousands of these 100 year old properties in my career, and I've never been sued for a sidewalk slip and fall.

That's exorbitant in my area for a house that size.