I do  have a good paying job that helps me pay my primary residence, but I like to plan for rainy days.My ultimate goal is have enough rental income to live off of, so I know conventional wisdom says I need to buy more rentals.

If you currently have an FHA though, and you're departing that residence, you need to be moving over 100 miles away for job change or family reasoning, and you need to have 25% equity in the previous property. 

Is it random?

@Susanne Stauffer, If you are condominiumizing the back units you are creating new real estate that is distinct from your primary residence. 

@Clinton Springer , Since you have lived in the property for two out of the previous five years as your primary residence, you could take the first $250k ($500k if married) of the gain tax-free.

i'd try to buy as close to where you live as you can, whether that's 2 minutes or 2 hours, instead of picking a random market potentially thousands of miles away.hope that helps

But since you’re a California resident — and, as you mentioned before, already had to register your Ohio LLC as a foreign entity in CA because it was managed from there — the same logic would likely apply.

Your CPA is likely concerned about the Personal Use Limitation, which is the biggest threat to the STR tax strategy.If you used the property for personal purposes for the greater of 14 days or 10% of the total days rented during the year, the IRS classifies it as a "residence."

If so, you could sell that and take advantage of the primary residence exemption, which would be tax-free up to $250K if single and $500K if married.

Quote from @Jean Pierre Jabo: my wife and i bought a unit last year in 2024. home is a 4 bd 2 bth, comes with a detached ADU unit thats 1 bed one bath with separate backyard that we currently rent for $1545 longterm. our interest rate is high, 7.1%. our mortage is about 3600 but adding PMI and other costs its total of $4k/month. we both make a combined income of $220k. should we try to move to another primary residence home about $480k and rent out our current main home for about 2300-2400 (fair market pricing for the area). or should we stay in our home and refinance and live there for a year and then move later?