What would you do if there were no cash flowing house hacks?

[Daniel Fitzroy]

Hi Bigger pockets! I’ve recently began practice analyzing potential house hacks for my girlfriend and I to purchase with a year. We are almost ready as my truck is almost pd off and my credit card with a 2k balance is the only other debt I have. My gf is saving up for a down payment and I will be hustling to make all this happen.

My concern is this.....what happens when we look on Zillow/realtor and can’t find any cash flowing duplex’s in our area for a first time house hack? I understand we aren’t going to need a home run deal but just a decent deal to get us started in real estate. What would you guys do? My girlfriend is considering we should just settle for a single family house and do a live in flip. I think it’s still possible to find a better deal perhaps I should look off market for a duplex or send out mailers and learn to market? Idk just looking for opinions thanks!

We are located in Dutchess county NY about two hours outside of New York City has anyone else house hacked around here? I know someone who owns a trailer home and only pays like 600 a month for a lot fee and pd cash for the trailer itself. I guess that’s an option too but ide like to try for a duplex/triplex

[Dan Weber]

@Daniel Fitzroy how are you analyzing your house hack? You said you're looking for a cash flowing house hack. So, are you looking for it to cash flow while you live there? That's unlikely to happen with a duplex. Generally, if I'm house hacking, I would ideally like the other unit(s) to cover my PITI and then cash flow nicely when I move out. If you house hack a 4 unit building, then you may get some extra cash every month while you live there after you pay the bills. When analyzing, I'd run your numbers like you are not living there as you likely won't be living there for 95% of the years that you own the property. Also, this gives you more of an apples to apples comparison when looking at investments.