House Hacking in Expensive Market

[Colby Livingston]

Hello All, 

Very excited to be apart of the bigger pockets community.  I just turned 23 and I am working as a Fireman in Orange County, California.  I am saving up and currently about 1 to 1.5 years away from being able to make a purchase.  I am extremely interested in the idea of house hacking.   In specific I want to do the rent by room strategy in a single family residence most likely using a 5% down conventional loan.   The problem that I am running into is that I would like to buy somewhere here around Orange county to be close to family and my work.   Many of the books I have been reading give examples of buying properties in the 2-4 hundred thousand dollar range.   One said that it would be extremely hard to cashflow properties above that.  

Most of the properties in the areas that I would like to buy range from 6-8 hundred thousand.   That is not even in Orange County.  Homes here seem to start at a million and only go up.  My question is does anyone have experience house hacking in these kinds of markets?  What was your strategy in doing so?  Or do I need to change my mindset on where t go from here all together?

I look forward to meeting people here and hopefully in the future being able to give advice of my own. 

Thank you for anyone's input, 

Colby Livingston

[Matthew McKee]

Have you read the book Set For Life by @Scott Trench ? Great book that seems to be geared for where you’re at. Focus on cutting costs and getting a side hustle, especially as a firefighter with so much spare time on your hands. Do what you can to whittle down the time it takes you to buy because 5% in 1-1.5 years will be a whole lot more than it is today. (Inflation + who knows where interest rates will be.)