I am personally not a fan of single family house hacks, but if that's all you got available in the area where you want to be and at the price point you can afford, then you have to go with that. 

Ithaca is like another planet.STRENGTHS-  appreciation is pretty much guaranteed, no matter how crummy your property is-  student housing isn't restricted, they'll live anywhere-  having an ivy league school means there's a lot of money flying around-  rent is high-  tons of development and growth going on-   strong STR performance outside the city properWEAKNESSES-  almost absurdly high prices-  similarly absurdly low cap rates-  pesky annual inspections required on multifamily properties-  most deals happen behind closed doors, and agents tend to be very unhelpful-  5-7% cap rates typical, sometimes lowerSummary: Ithaca is a great market to park your money in and wait.

I’m also not a fan of having any properties paid off because of the Return of Equity factor. 

NOT before, IRS isn’t a fan of that. 

@Andrea LauritzenI start off investing out of state in KC and I'm a huge fan.

I am a big fan of it and you managed to do without with very little money down! 

His solution was an offer to replace the fridge and the ceiling fan.

Deandre,As a Banker I am not a big fan of borrowing money for the down payment unless its from family or a close friend.

This goes against the general concensus, but I'm not a big fan of borrowing money to borrow money.

Outside of work my interests are sports, fitness, poker and coaching my sons little league baseball team.