Ethics of House Hacking Acquisitions

[David Rodick]

TLDR: The specific action of forcing a family with school-aged children to move with a month's notice during a school year, for no other reason than I prefer to move in, seems like a line that shouldn't be crossed.

I am a new investor seeking my first property. My goal is to house-hack a duplex. (I am also required to owner-occupy as I intend to use a VA loan.)

I'm frequently running into the problem of both units being occupied and a scarcity of duplexes with one side vacant. This occupancy is certainly a good sign, but would require that I terminate the lease of one of the current occupants (who are often on a month-to-month lease). This often raises an ethical question to my mind.

Terminating leases doesn't bother me in and of itself, as a business needs to be run as a business, and there are no breaches of legal contract as long as I give the notice required by their lease. I certainly have no problem swiftly evicting non-payers. My moral question comes from terminating a lease, for no other reason than I prefer to move in, when children are involved when it is the middle of the school year.

As a teacher in a low-income school, I almost weekly observe the enormous challenges students face whenever they have to change schools or districts, which for too many students, happens frequently. All of this is enormously stressful on a student, they have a hard time catching up with their new school's curriculum in the middle of a semester/year, they struggle to form relationships, and they often struggle with distrust, lack of motivation, even withdrawal. All of this leads to them struggling academically and reinforces cycles of poverty and being disadvantaged.

I have no illusions of fixing social cycles, using real estate as a charity, or being a savior, but I am keenly aware of the responsibility I have with the power of property acquisition. The specific action of forcing a family with school-aged children to move with a month's notice during a school year seems like a line that shouldn't be crossed.

I am eager for the perspectives of others on this issue. Is there something I'm not considering? Am I being too considerate (and if so, why)? Are there any alternatives I'm not thinking of? And please share any other thoughts or advice you think may be helpful. Thank you all in advance.