New Construction Duplex Househack

[Neil Blalock]

Hi BP community

Here is a little background on me. I am 23 and single and work a lot of hours. I am currently renting month to month from a friend for 600 a month. I am flexible with my living situation in order to have the best financial outcome. The goal is to househack and pay nothing for a mortgage or even better, cashflow. 

I am looking for my first home/investment property in SW Florida. I have a pre approval and everything planned out how I thought I wanted to do it until I found out about new construction duplexes in the area. My plan was to purchase a single family or duplex and rent by the room. Most single family with my criteria are around 300-350k and duplexes usually go around the 400k or more. I found out earlier this week that I can build a duplex for 250k plus the lot cost which would put it around 300k. They are a little bit smaller with 1 car garage but the numbers make sense for rent purposes. I understand there really isn't room for forced appreciation in the property but has anyone had this thought because of the market conditions of just building brand new? I understand the quality of the house would be a big factor but I am just trying to wrap my head around the idea that a brand new house is about the same cost as a 20 year old house. I am going to be househacking regardless.