One has to remember that rent rates nationwide have softened.

With $20k in savings and an additional $4k monthly saving rate, I'm navigating my next steps carefully, especially since I value starting with a substantial equity position in any deal.Here are the options I'm contemplating:Invest in a Low Entry Property: With my capacity for a 20% down payment, I'm considering properties in the $100k-$120k range.

Hard to say what rates will be doing then or before (without making wildly inaccurate predictions that will come back to haunt me), so I'd just say to ensure you know what kind of (or if a) prepayment penalty is baked into the loan.

My loan has bounced around a bit but is now with Western Alliance Bank at a rate I don't want to lose.

Low interest rates contributed to this mindset, making it easier to cashflow.

Or in other words, the rent received from house hacking would cover our housing costs (mortgage, property tax, insurance, repairs, utilities).Upon research however Oahu seem to be a high cost and low cap rate area similar to SF where we currently live.

There will be punishing late fees and probably a default interest rate.

Since we cannot buy local (cap rate in CA is pretty low), we are exploring different markets. 

The going rate in the Austin metro is 1 month's rent as a fee.

I have seen some great deal in and around Dayton as well.This year will be a good year as rates start to come back down we took a little hit last week but should start to drop by 2nd quarter.