And if you are single and no kids house hacking seems to be much easier in that time of life v. when you might be more worried about others being close by to your family. 

It is not the landlord creating that instability for their kids, it is the tenant. 

I have a house, no kids, good income, no debt.

Single, roommates, spouse kids, etc.2.  

(I'm a full-time real estate agent and my husband is a W2 employee).Our two kids will graduate from college in May 2025, and we will have about $290K in parent loans for them that we would like to pay off.

Can your spouse help, kids help, relatives, one of the young people trying to get started here on BP? 

We want to utilize our income to set us up for financial success as we get older and for generational wealth for our kids. 

What does it look like with a 45k salary for single mom with zero investment experience that just received an inheritance of "x", or the 80k salary for a single income household with 3 kids, a < 2k/mo mortgage?

And if not you know them well, maybe your kids play together etc.

We're keen to get into the real estate investment realm with a shared goal: to provide for our kids.