Therefore it's quite normal for a design change to be an additional service fee. 

There are quite a few out there - the Community will provide you connections with hundreds of other investors who are looking to do the same thing you are.  

- I know NC been on the radar for quite some time- is it still worth to pay attention to this market?

This type of property has the chance to cashflow, even highly leveraged, in a market where cashflowing properties are quite difficult to find.Could house hacking a property like this work while I am going to school? 

There are quite a few people from Canada.

For illustration purposes, it's quite normal to acquire a mix use building consisting of 9 residential units + 1 commercial space for less than a 9 unit multi-family building would trade in the equivalent location because the commercial space is an automatic disqualifier for many investors.

We have quite a few resources here such as our STR Calculator, STR Newsletter, and our bookstore which has "Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth" that is excellent. 

As we can see the average retail investor is still quite negative.

I'd imagine that it is quite location specific as well, so I'd suggest poking around a bit on HipCamp as if you were a camper, and see what's around you. 

Of course, easier said then done, and evictions and issues/extra expenses pop up, but if you keep the long term vision, it tends to build on itself quite nicely.