My husband and I are trying to decide if we should use this as our primary residence.

Speculation on appreciationI'm currently looking at properties like this because I need a primary residence, but they certainly aren't investments. 

The house needs a lot of work, as it seems like someone opened a window a long time ago, and I don't doubt that local residents of the forest have found a home in there (not to mention potential water damage... gahh!)

I just realized that 1031 exchange is my only real option, as I already had a primary residence exclusion within the last two years when I go to sell this house. 

Nothing is actually moving forward yet.Limit the number of days per month or year that you can rent your entire residenceRequire that a license holder reside in the primary residence XX number of days.

I live in Bay Area and am interested in NC (triad region) for buy-and-hold (rental) because that's where my extended family resides and Bay Area is too expensive to make numbers work out for me. 

Finding residents is a completely different process as compared to a typical rental property (assuming you are operating legally).

I purchased my first house as my primary residence in 2011 for 107,000.

We are selling our primary residence and purchasing a new primary residence. 

I would drive through different neighborhoods on my way to work compiling a list of distressed properties that I intended to try and track down the owners and while I was doing that someone contacted me with a house that they wanted to sell.The property needs roughly 15 - 20k in repairs but once done the property should have about 50k in equity.I am trying a mix between the house hack and the brrrr on this one.I am purchasing the property as a primary residence and will live in it as I make the repairs.