Negative cash flowing house hack

[Manfred Philo]

Hello everyone,

Just looking for some advice about a possible house hack deal that I am considering. I am located on Long Island, NY and real estate is expensive compared to other markets.

I was able to find a property that I would be able to house hack but after running the numbers the property would cash flow -$700. The property has three levels with 3 bd 1 bth on the top level and a 3bd 1bth and unfinished basement for the bottom 2 levels. The reason why I am considering this is because I believe that the property will appreciate well long term after a little work and having to spend $700 per month is cheap for living expenses.

The plan is that although we wouldn’t cash flow in the positive the drop in living expense would allow my wife and I to save more of our take home pay from our jobs to eventually purchase our next property and fully rent this one out. Once the property is fully rented out it would cash flow about $1000.

I would appreciate it greatly if I can get some feedback about any potential pitfalls and issues I should be looking out for, or if this is just a bad idea.

Thanks

[Brett McManus]

Being familiar with the cost of living on Long Island (depending on the area of course) I would not let $700 hold you back. You can look at is as -$700 every month or you can take the cost of finding another form of reasonable living, subtract $700, and that is your real cash flow in this situation. Would you rather have that $700 pay off someone else's mortgage or yours?

At the end of the day you need a place to live. If the property has some opportunity to add value or is in an appreciating neighborhood I would say your ahead in the long-run and the experience will be priceless.