Owning rentals/ house hacking for single families?

[Brandon Morgan]

Hi all, I am in new jersey and I am new to Real estate. my plan is to own rental properties and also house hack. my original plan was to find a duplex but the low inventory and competitive market has been making this really difficult. are buying single families also a good option for this? I already got preapproved for a loan and have 30k ready for disposal.  I know for single families I can rent out by the room. but is the process for that complicated? are there legal issues? open to any suggestions for owning and renting out single families. if anyone has any experience in this matter I am more than ready to listen. 

[Alexa Ferguson]

Hi Brandon! I have lived in 3 houses over the past few years and house hacked all of them - all single family homes. As you said, reasonably priced multifamily properties are hard to come by in many markets (I am in Denver and that is the case here), so SFH is the more affordable option. By making it your primary residence you can also put as little as 0%-5% down, depending on the lending program. We would look for homes with a space that could be separated so we didn't have to share space with our tenants. This could be a basement, upper level, wing of the house, apartment over the garage, etc. - any part that can be accessed separately. Denver homes commonly have a separate entrance to the basement, so that is the form ours took. You can then rent this space out as a long-, medium, or short-term rental, based on the strategy you like. We do STRs because they generate the most cash flow and are allowed in our area. We have consistently covered our mortgage for the past 3 years using this strategy! Hope that helps!