Renting by the room vs the whole house?

[Santiago Flores-Alvarez]

Hello everyone! I'm thinking of one of the below options but am not sure which is better from both a financial perspective and an ease of management perspective. For background, I currently live in a 3 bed 2 bath home and my mortgage is $1,800 per month.

1. House hack by renting out the two vacant rooms for $800 each, thus leaving me with a $200 monthly mortgage payment.

2. Rent out the entire house for $2,000.

The goal is to have the loan be paid down by a renter for my current home so that I can move onto my second home and buy it as owner occupied and house hack that one. My hesitation with #1 is that renting a house out by the rooms could be a headache from a management perspective when I move out and into my next home...especially with the possibility of different timings in the lease contracts for each room. However, once I move out I can rent all three rooms in the house by the room and make up to $2,400. Or I can go with option 2 and possibly make $2,000 but probably easier to manage than three different renters in the same home. I really appreciate the help! Thanks!