House Hacking vs. Renting a 2-family and living in an apartment?

[Kyle P.]

Hi All,

Apologies if this question has been posed before. I've long been considering "house hacking", in which I'd live in one unit of a 2-family and rent out the other unit. Ideally, the rent would cover the mortgage, but if not, I would just contribute the difference. However, I just started thinking about something that may be a better idea: Would it make more financial sense to rent out the entire 2-family and just split an apartment with my girlfriend? I'm thinking that as long as the rent from the second unit is higher than my share of an apartment's rent, that this would make more sense.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Kyle