First time House - Owner Occupy

[David Santore]

I'm looking to buy my first home, but I can't afford to buy a single family so I started looking into multi families so I can rent the other unit and help with a mortgage.  I'm now looking at a multi unit from the investment side now vs. the personal housing side, but I of course can't just give that up since I'd be living there too.

My goal is live there for a bit and at some point, move out and then both units can be used as rentals.  I guess I am just unsure if I should be treating an owner occupy experience differently than a single home or a true multi-unit/investor perspective.  Is there a certain rental amount that a monthly rental payment should be compared to the mortgage?  Where I am (Boston) I would not be able to cover the mortgage completely via rent so I would be paying as well (albeit a smaller amount)

[Neil Schoepp]

Welcome aboard @David Santore

This is house hacking. 

You need to look at the numbers and make sure that when you move out and put a tenant in "your" half that it will cashflow.  If it will not then you force yourself into selling when you decide to move on, and if you can't sell for whatever reason then your stuck. So just make sure you give your exit strategy it's due.

Rental payments aren't necessarily tied to the mortgage. They are tied to all your expenses plus your reserves. Your expenses are your debt service (mortgage), taxes, insurance, property management, utilities (heat, electric, trash, water/sewer) some duplexes already come with separate utilities for each unit. This type is better especially down the road when you move and rent out the whole building. 

Make sure you have reserves for when the water heater goes or the roof starts leaking. 

This house hacking is done all the time you'll do fine just read up a bit and ask more questions as you come across certain concepts. 

Oh my last thought is don't just focus on duplexes, in your search you may come across a Tri or quad. It's still the same concept.