House Hacking in West Palm Beach, FL

[Joseph Kingma]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving (to West Palm Beach, FL) and want to buy our first multi-family home and live in one of the unit. I have a question regarding analyzing deals and would greatly appreciate some advice from those more experienced than I. When one plans to live in a unit, should you analyze the deal as if there is a tenant renting that unit, or should you try to find a good cash flow without that extra unit's rent added in? My thinking is that if it is a good deal if I'm not living in it, then I'll be paying a minimal amount to live there compared to buying a single-family or renting an apartment. Then, when I move on to the next deal, I can rent out the unit that I had been living in and will have a positive cash flow and good cash-on-cash return. 

Am I going about this the right way? Also, if anyone has any thoughts about going into a relatively hot market like West Palm Beach with this house-hacking plan, I'd love to hear from you too. Thanks so much in advance!

-Joe