The only way I can think of to make it work is if she switches into a long-term asset mentality and can take on the negative cash flow for a while waiting on rents to go up and appreciation to kick in (as well as inflation benefits, etc.).

I don't see the house hacking mentality applied to commercial areas much. 

I considered renting prior to moving, 100% the most logical thing to do, but given how much we've moved in the past year, for our mental state we'd like to find a place where we can settle.

They usually want to get out because it's mentally and sometimes physically taxing for that age or they just want to be fully retired from everything.

I wish I had the mentality to take this step at such a young age.