Buying a new primary residence has nothing to do with the capital gains exclusion.It is when you go to sell the new house down the line you'll run into a problem.

Taxes are reasonable (in most areas), and there is a significant lack of quality affordable housing.  

Hey @Brett Baker, generally, any place with a great water view or directly on the water will bring more revenue.Of course profitability will all be based on purchase price and prevailing nightly rates in the area.If you find a cool 2/2 or 3/2 right on the water with a great view for 1.5m or a 2/2 or 3/2 house a block away for 600k, then I would look at the house over the condo.

house hack is possible. base way to get feet wet

You can have two houses within a quarter mile of each other with vastly different ARV and rent amounts.

If it's the case that you are in an area where this is a consistent problem, it may be better to install a whole house surge protector at the main panel.

I have been a buy and hold investor on the north side since 2011 and worked with over 200+ house hackers

My plan is to start house hacking.

Because you are forcing equity into the house you are sometimes able to pull back out the entire purchase and rehab process to return to your investor then you own the home with just the mortgage.

Being boots on the ground out here, seeing the state of some of the homes here both on and off the market and knowing the price of housing in the area, I am confident that I could be successful in flipping homes here.