I am up for eventually expanding my reach, but I don't want to buy a property 3 hours away just because it is in a good market for my first buy and hold only to have it fall apart because I am not as familiar with the area I say, why would you want your first property to fall apart because you didn't have enough money to handle a small or medium crisis?  

Again, I spend more time doing other things on other sites then on biggerpockets...I network mostly on social media mediums...I don't visit the blogs here because through Todd I stay current and up to date and learn new ways around problems.

It includes General attendance (worth $800 since I am a Pro Member) + a workshop (30-Day Stays: How to Invest in Medium-Term Rentals (you can switch this to any other workshop that is still available)) for which I paid an additional $300. 

Yes the zoning is multi family medium density so I can and will build a duplex or a fourplex.

@Adam York since you aren't far from a hospital, you can look into devoting a unit or two to Medium Term Rentals for traveling nurses or other professionals.

w/today's tech, you can easily qualify/quantify the effectiveness of your medium by use of link tracking / web analytics and ph# tracking ... that's the only way you'll truly know which medium is working best for you or at least how effective they are for people getting back to you.btw, i say menu items (i.e., restaurants - if ppl want to know nutritional data, origin, price, reviews, etc.) or products (i.e., similar to restaurants if you're at a grocery/food place OR for mfr data, reviews, coupons, rebates, price check, etc.)... note that above mentioned uses are typically where you're not in a car or getting a single letter/post card that you're reading (and you have to pull out your phone just to scan the qr code vs. typing in a url or ph# just to call/get more info).

I would look at the small multi family and combine medium term rentals or STRs to combine to get you the privacy!

Another challenge you're going to have is if you're trying to limit the number of properties in the exchange, you're going to be limited to medium sized units rather than duplexes and quads.

As a house-hacker, you have some options for how to utilize your house: Medium-term-rental, short-term-rental, or rent-by-room rental.

Are you wanting something that can be a short term rental or long term, or maybe medium term in the meantime?