I am also including the taxes and insurance while running the numbers.

.- Document everything (receipts for taxes, all the work that you did yourself via photos and video, and your expenses in an excel sheet to make sure you're on track.

Unexpected thing is actually coming from property tax rather than the performance of the STR itself, we still get 99.99999% fully booked.

I like Texas, but the only thing that holds me back is the higher property taxes compared to North Carolina.1- Money: ok to spend 200-300K (prefer to put only 20-30% down) and invest in a couple of properties than buying one in cash2- Prefer cash flow (of course, appreciation would also be great)3-Prefer SFH over duplex just because with SFH (in a good neighborhood), I probably would have less headache and dramaHere are my questions:1- Which city do you invest in and why? 

From paper this looks good, but even with that, wouldn't the tax kill all of this effort if I also gone this direction? 

The first two years of taxes were paid but the most recent was not.

@Tyler Sherman review Form 8582 in your tax return.  

@Justin BrownThe only thing I would add, is the house hack strategy's underlying timelines is long term.Do play out the next 5 years with cost, rent, and appreciation increase.Don't forget the tax advantages as the cherry on top.

In our contracts, there’s a paragraph that says whether or not the buyer plans on living there as their primary residence, for insurance and tax reasons

I've been a licensed CPA in IA for the past 5 years and started my own tax and accounting company as well in 2017.