Another idea for housing economy if you have an office is to rig your office to live in but not sleep in. 

I believe he now lives in Portugal.

This works best when the seller is motivated and open to flexible terms.4.BRRRR Strategy (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat)– If you find the right undervalued property, you can finance the rehab with short-term funding and then refinance into a long-term loan, pulling most or all of your money back out.5.House Hacking– If you’re open to living in your investment, you can use an FHA loan (as low as 3.5% down)to buy a multi-unit, live in one unit, and rent out the others.

Years ago I had posted about Shared living.

I live in the Washington DC area, and I would love to connect with anyone willing to. 

Focus on absentee owners and start with the ones who live the farthest away and only own one property in the area since they have the least use for the property.You can also drive for dollars, looking for anomalies of disrepair and then look them up in the tax records and use a site like Spokeo to do cheap skip tracing.

I am from Phoenix but lots of family from the Seattle and surrounding areas.My wife and I have been doing live in flips since 2019.

Is the basement legally considered living space?

Not sure at this price, but maybe a sober living home or women's shelter?

Keep the current investment and buy another house hack to live in.