Starting Out House Hacking

[Richard Miller]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Richard Miller and I am interested in investing in rental properties. After reading and hearing stories about how people start, it sounds like house hacking would be a good way to get my feet wet. I am looking to purchase my first house and want to rent out 2-3 rooms which will hopefully cover the mortgage allowing me to live for free and save more money. The house that I would purchase would be a 5-6 bedroom house. 

Say after a year or two, I decide to move out of the house and rent out the entire property. From what I have read people tend to rent out the house as a whole to 1 tenant, which in this case I could do for $2000 in the area, but if I were to rent out each room individually, I could get $3000-3200. I know someone that is currently using this strategy on a house in the same area which is why I am curious renting the property in this way. I understand that one con to this strategy would be having to manage 5-6 individual tenants compared to 1 tenant. 

The questions that I want to know are: Is this a strategy that I could continue to deploy in multiple properties? Is this a good strategy to deploy for my first property? Why or why not?

Thanks for all your comments. 

-Richard