Bay Area rookie seeking house-hack guidance

[Parker Ludlow Imrie]

My wife and I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, have roots here, and plan to stay. (Great place for a rookie to cut his REI teeth, right?) We are about to sell our SFH (not a profitable rental), which should give us a decent chunk of cash to start with. In the meantime we're renting in Alameda--we intend this to be temporary, though the area is pretty ideal for us long-term. We've been looking at MFH house-hack options, which seems the most straightforward, but haven't ruled out other options. I don't expect to break even in this market--I'm okay with dramatically reducing net cost of living from our SFH PITI, allowing us to save more for the next investment, but I am also concerned about rent control and other local gotchas.

What should I know about Bay Area rent control? What other gotchas should I educate myself on? Are there other options worth looking into as a newbie? (Self-storage seems attractive too, or simply remote investing, but don't know if those are worth continuing to pay rent ourselves). Is STR house-hack a better bet for cash-flow?

Trying to avoid analysis paralysis but there are so many options and variables; I'm looking for some guidance.  Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

[Brian Garlington]

You'll find more MF Opportunities right next door to you in Oakland than the rest of Alameda County and Contra Costa County combined. Are you going to 1031 Exchange when you sell your cureent SFH?