Usually low inflation is good for stability but wages never keep pace with higher inflation and costs are rising quickly, e.g. gas and food, so, with household income remaining steady, late payments will rise, putting notes in jeopardy.In these times, cash and junk silver are safe, all else are speculative, including gold and real estate.

I think a townhouse in West midtown could be the best bet for you to house hack of sorts.

That's definitely unique and I bet a lot of people could benefit from something like that.Happy to connect if you are ever down in the city.

If you don't have that comfort level, having a professional is always a safe bet but could delay your ability to get under contract quickly. 

After weighing the pros and cons of CC and personal loans, I think I am going to go with the personal loan as you suggest to play it safe.

@Philip Hernandez, this transaction does not necessarily have to be set up as the safe harbor TIC ruling of 2002-22. 

My desired criteria are as follows:-At a minimum breaks even as a house hack-4+ Br single family OR small multifamily-Safe area (I don't have to worry about going for a walk at night)-Within 30 minutes of Columbia (maybe 40 minutes if it is towards DC)

I bet the drivers would appreciate being paid upon completion of the task as well. 

When It closes I would like to pull some equity out of it and put it into a safe index fund to back the property incase all goes wrong.

At this point in time, I would rather bet on a rental bounce locally (not necessarily in the city) based on a post-covid recovery, rather than perpetual shrinking cap rates in those hot out-of-state markets (given that cap rates here are potentially equal or better than those other markets atm, and we may be headed into a higher interest rate environment).That's not to say other markets won't make people money.