Best areas for low acquisition costs, occupancy rates, property appreciation?   

Just be careful as you do not want to do anything that could look like mortgage fraud (fake master lease that just transitions over to you directly would be mortgage fraud and best to stay away from). 

When the time comes to evict our first tenant, I will hire the best lawyer and let the expert take care of it.  

Analysts predicted about 160k new jobs, so it's still slightly off compared to experts' best guesses.

That is a very valid point.

I'm in the union on long island so I have a decent W2 job to help get started, I think a house hack would be my best bet starting out but, what do you guys think?

I found a property in a very good area of Southern California where the seller added 2 additional units (attached) to the back of her house.

It was a great experience…high quality renter, no maintenance on our part, and she paid it off a year earlier than anticipated.It was too long a term, though, and did not account for appreciation, especially during 2022-2023.We have heard a few podcasts on the rent to own strategy, and are very interested.

Your question does bring up a very good point.  

Best of luck