(make sure you are budgeting for maintenance and management if you plan to use it) Rent will increase over time and your property will continue to appreciate in value. 

Low down payment, but you would be increasing the value of the property with your own cash.

Capacity and Tolerance. 1) Capacity: how many people can you comfortably fit in the property, is there room to add more, or add more value to the tenants to increase rent.2) Tolerance: How many people are you comfortable living with, if there are vacancies are you able to handle that.House hacking is an amazing path to homeownership, and a nice low barrier to entry into self managing your properties.

The median home value in Phoenix as of April 2023 was $368,657, which is a 23.5% increase from the previous year. 

When they started screwing with us last week about appraisals and then having to give them an ‘after reno’ price for the house when they had no idea what we were doing the house to increase its value, I did mention to the partners I thought we’d been scammed.

Why would you take your cash, and spend it on a property you don't need to spend it on, instead of using that cash to increase your properties,...and income.

If you are open to value add strategy, small multis have potential for not only traditional forced appreciation but also the ability to see major rent increases.  

Assuming you go the HELOC route, another option to reduce your costs assuming you have decent credit is to look at credit card balance transfer promotions.Back in 2003-2004 I had HELOCs on my investment properties and interest rates were increasing.

Increased demand for historic district rentals and excellent rental history.

The return of installing one is not 1 to 1 but will increase your properties value.