Is it built to 'living space standards' and up to new IRC codes?

Not sure how to navigate buying one specifically to live in. 

Rented my house we originally lived in 12 years ago because we couldn’t sell it when we moved and that’s how we got started. 5 years ago we made a plan and an effort to accumulate multi family properties and did that.

@J Newman to answer your HELOC question: yes, you can use those funds for business purposes if Dad is comfortable with that option.

Sometimes they live in one of the units.

I could pretty comfortably afford my monthly out of pocket payment due to income and help from my partner. 

Sometimes people who are comfortable managing the details of a job will hire a less skilled person to do it knowing they can get a MUCH better price and a "decent" job IF they themselves stay on top of how the work is being done.

Being based in the Raleigh area and having lived in Chicago I am biased toward Raleigh area for investing. 

Since you're living in it, the worst case scenario is paying the full mortgage which hopefully you would be able to do anyway. 

I'm asking because we live in southern KY around the Lexington area and we are planning to invest and househack here where we live so we can work AND invest.