But higher tax rate in PG county. 

That’s best case. 

With a family and kids the best house hack is a house and cottage or duplex option.

(Best regions/areas for returns?)

I also agree that Akron is a viable area as well, but Im still finding the best deals in and around Cleveland.

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

If the floating rate debt starts costing too much and there is no capital to replace a rate cap, reserves run out.  

Most Heloc rates right now are around 7.75% to 10% so if you look at your blended rate between your fist and Heloc you would be better off doing a cash out refinance.A lot of people forget or simply do not know that if you do a cash out refinance the rate does go up but in 12 to 24 months if you do a "rate and term" refinance you can get it back down fairly close to where it was at prior.

Interest rates don't help, but investors were also successful in the 80s and 90s with rates in this range. 

My first mortgage was almost 11% and that was a good rate.