Hey @Augustin Calderon, they are both good options depending on your comfort level.I would be more biased towards the investment property.

I have not done too many deals in your market, and I anticipate things are nuanced depending on the property type and condition and based on the personality of the owner....BUT it is common and customary in my world, which is usually retail/med office, for tenants to have at least some time of free rent during the buildout.We usually structure things as follows, and you can change the number of days around but this is traditionally what we at least shoot for when we have a tenant we are repping.- Lease commencement date is to be the 6/1/24 or when the landlord's work is complete. and we traditionally have penalties in place if the LL's work takes too long and pushes us past our initial timeline.- then we typically have "rent commencement" or when you start paying rent, to be the earlier of either 180 days following lease commencement or when you are open for business.  

Some real estate investments grow a little slower and even though there is monthly rents collected, there is deferred maintenance costs and management requirements depending on what type of properties.

If your retirement utterly depends on having adequate cash flow from your properties, any downturns will cripple you.

Depending on what feedback you’re looking for, I recommend connecting with @David Espinosa and @Andy Edge.

The capital gain is directly generated from the sale, but I could see the argument for separating it out in this situation depending on who's perspective you're looking at.That being said, sounds like you're aware of this already.

Short answer: yes get a lawyer involved alwaysLong answer: the other stuff depends. 

I am looking to househack in my local area, Beaver County PA to be specific, and I know some people who have done the "rent by the room" strategy but they invest in other parts of the U.S. and I was wondering if it is market dependent or not?

Sorry I do not have experience directly relating to that, and I think it could vary state to state. 

I'd focus on 150,000 sq ft and up deals so you get the densities you need. we just proposed 84 units on a lot that is 4500 square feet in Columbus Ohio with reduction in parking from 111 cars to 0 and we will lease off site parking. shift parking off site to save money on garages or push it into public garages. if the numbers work build structured parking which most the time they do it just depends on the deal size. if you want to sell to institutional investors you need at least 100 units in my opinion but the sweet spot is like 150+. in downtown columbus our market you can get about downtown unlimited height land for 1.5 million an acre.