Getting another rental property when first one isn’t cash flowing

[Mathew Fuller]

Hello,

I am currently in my first house hack, with the goal of renting it out and holding onto it long term. The issue is I did a low money down conventional, which means I have PMI and a higher mortgage payment. Right now if I were to rent it out I would be negative 2-400 a month, not including vacancy, cap ex, etc..

I do have a decent amount of cash saved \ invested between my partner and myself, so getting another house shouldn't be a problem. I am wondering from a wealth building perspective would it make more sense for me to rent this house out and have the tenant pay all of the interest, insurance, pmi, and a little principal through rent, and get the depreciation tax benefit, while I cover the 2-400 a month in principal, and buy another house hack. or would it make more sense for me to pay down my principal for another year or so aggressively until I hit that 80% LTV, and then rent it out and buy another house hack.

I live in a high appreciation and expensive market (Colorado). So if the house is appreciating 3- 5% a year and all I’m doing is paying a bit of principal on the property, is that a bad idea \ strategy? I think saving up 80-100k for a down payment on a house here would take quite a long time and wouldn’t make much sense, but that’s what it takes to cash flow in this market from what I’m seeing.

Thanks for the thoughts