I wanted to get in at an affordable time in a city that is seeing growth and making improvements.

It is my understanding that the tenant/buyer is commonly someone who either needs to improve their credit and/or needs to save up for a downpayment.

My advice would be to go for the house hack option, here's why:1) You can never count on market appreciation and in a world of historically low financing rates I would suggest that asset prices are sensitive to a downturn2) You can much more reliably force appreciation by by improving an asset3) If you focus on assets that need improving you are much more likely to get a below market deal where you will have instant equity at closing4) You can get much better financing terms for a property that you buy personally rather than an investment5) You will ultimately be a better investor if you have some hands on experience6) You will get better returns on the house hack because you can avoid paying property management feesetc.Good luck!

Is my new tax base the value of the home at the time of conversion - No, it’s lesser of FMV or your adjusted basis (so basically your purchase price plus improvement) or will i get some type of credit lessening the Capitol gains hit because the prop was my pri res for 10 years?

With improvements What was the outcome?

., the sponsor was able to increase NOI by rehabbing the structure, but the value added by making the improvements in a very efficient manner allowed the sale of the property at a price that outpaces the original cap rate.

So from what I read, I should be using either the fair market value at time of conversion or the cost of purchase plus addition/improvements, whichever is lower.

I'm currently looking for ways to improve security at my 14 unit in Phoenix.

You can slowly improve the cash-flow over time.

It would be an awesome improvement if those could somehow be excluded!