So a lot of people have been suggesting using a property manager.

Hi Margarita-Great question.There are many mental blocks and friction points to buying your first property.First off, just buying property outside of a first or second home to use is not done by most people and buying your first home is a major purchase for most people.That means the people in our immediate sphere of influence are not thinking about buying investment property, they see it as risky and out of a sense of protecting you or themselves encourage you not to do it.I remember having the same mental blocks and fears you probably do thinking about buying your first property or first investment property.The most critical thing to overcoming these mental blocks is self education and surrounding yourself with the best team of people to help you.An investor friendly Realtor who can refer you to an investor friendly lender, title company or closing office, property inspector, property manager, and insurance agent.Real estate is relational and having the best team will keep you out of the weeds.To Your Success!

It is sad when people have problems like this, and at various time everyone faces challenges. 

Most people will wait that out. 

But, I’ve seen many people recover from similar or even much worse situations, and go on to have investment success.  

On average, 80 people move into Columbus weekly. 

Our tenants have been in the house the past 3 years; they're good tenants and people, and we want to do right by them while also meeting our own needs at this time.My first option is to approach the tenants and see if any of them want to purchase the property; that would probably be the smoothest exit for us.  

As a new real estate professional it was imperative to me to be able to learn from successful people as well as be in an environment that breeds success.

They are not as active / robust as they were prior to COVID but there are still a number of people getting together.John

Everything I've heard from people that were successful using another primary loan for their next house hack is in line with @Daniel McDonald.