WWYD: College Graduate House Hacking

[Ryan Palczynski]

Hey everyone! I'd appreciate any thoughts you would be willing to share on my situation.

I am a recent college graduate (age 23) looking to get my foot in the door of real estate investing through house hacking. Here is my situation:

I have 20k in savings, mostly invested in mutual funds. I have 25k in student loans (much lower than they could have been, as I saved much by working as a Resident Assistant in campus dorms for the past two years, which means free room and board). In June I will be moving to the DC area on a 67k annual salary pre-tax. I am also engaged, planning to be married in May of 2024.

Given my phase in life (young and without kids) I like to think it is an ideal time to begin house hacking. I am pre-approved for an FHA mortgage of 300k, which (with a ~12k down payment) could get me into a 2-bedroom condo in the DC area, where I could live in one bedroom and rent out the other. This is a property that eventually (given 1-year occupancy obligation) my future wife will move into temporarily, until we find another property to house hack after the 1-year obligation. Because of this, I could only offer a 9-month lease to a roommate.

I think to delay purchasing a property would be a missed opportunity, especially because after I am married, a future house hack would need to be a duplex or multi-family (compromising for the comfort of having a separate unit), which in the DC area are much more expensive, and even with two incomes, we may not be able to get approved for a mortgage for that amount.

Should I make the leap and house hack, perhaps spreading myself too thin with little buffer, but securing a property that could later become a cash-flowing rental? Or is it preferable to spend the next year renting, paying off student loans and building savings to purchase a rarer and far more expensive multifamily property, and delaying my RE investing journey?

Thank you for your thoughts!