House Hacking My First Purchase

[Jake Denning]

My first investment was my primary residence in which I house hacked last year. After being a renter for 3 years prio to that and spending tens of thousands of dollars in rents for nothing, I eventually caught a clue and made my first purchase and bought my house for 240k with no money down on a USDA loan.

Benefits:

1. I was able to buy a 240k home with minimal out of pocket  cost (less than 10k)
2. I was able to rent out 3 out of the 4 rooms for $600/m for each room which pays for my mortgage and puts a little cash in my pocket each month.

3. House hacking has allowed me to live almost "free" while paying down a mortgage in my name

4. While I have lived here I have been able to add sweat equity and round up my buddies for some "free" labor (usually pizza and beer is the cost)

5. I was able to negotiate a Kubota 0 turn (8k value) and a giant gun safe to be part of the purchase (2-3k)

Cons:

1. I purchased at what the home appraised for with no money down - this is also a negative because it is a horrible equity position.

2. It truly could have been a better investment if I had found a cheaper home and put a down payment to minimize my monthly note.

3. After putting about 20k back into the property it has not appreciated quite to where I would have liked it to or thought it would.

If I had to do it again:

I would still house hack and I may even do it on my next primary residence in a duplex/triplex/four-plex. You seriously cannot beat living for damn near free when you are getting started! Being able to stack my cash while my mortgage is paid down has been a huge plus but if I had to redo it then I would have bought a cheaper property and put at least a small amount down to help get the monthly note down. I also would not sink too much money in the property where you will never get it back out. I definitely do not regret the purchase as it has worked out fine but there are a few tweaks that I could have paid attention to before jumping to purchase.