If the primary goal, and it should be, of every investor is a return of capital and the secondary goal is maximum return on that capital, then you are in a great position.The real problem you need to solve, as I see it, is taking advantage of the unused equity in your Atlanta property.

If you don't want to miss out maybe just buy it as your primary and live in it until you can actually at least break even.

I'm finding out that if I make the property my primary residence for 1 yr and then turn it into a rental.

I have a 3/2.5 in Old Lake Highlands near White Rock Lake (~1 mile) that my family and I are living in as a primary residence, but I have been thinking about house hacking into another house and then doing a MTR on this 3/2.5.

Yes, we just found out about the 180 days and were initially not happy about it but after your explanation on partial installment sale, it makes it less irritating.

Quote from @Matthew Posteraro: Me and my wife are planning on starting our investment journey by buying a multi-family home that we would live in as our primary residence.

We do them, but they aren't cheap and your LTV will be lower that a HELOC on a primary residence.

I recently bought a primary residence all cash and would like to put a HELOC on the property to use as a revolving line of credit for various real estate projects I am working on.

Has anyone found success in turning your primary residence into a rental, buying a new primary with 3-5% down and repeating each year?

In addition, the capital outlay starts long before any income and the detracting of something from the primary structure even if it is just yard space.As indicated, my original protege made a lot of money (over $500k) on a land transaction associated with a large count ADU development.