Why Would Someone that Is Financially Savvy NOT House-Hack?

[Scott Trench]

I'm curious. I have written extensively about how I "House-Hack" and live in one part of a duplex and have tenants rent out the other portion of that. They pay down the mortgage and allow me to live for free.

For everyone that has not lived in their home for 10+ years (I can see you being fairly entrenched at that point), why wouldn't you consider doing this?

It seems to me that you have MORE flexibility than as a renter (when I moved out, I could do so at any time, as I didn't have a lease with myself - I could have moved anywhere in the country and enjoyed some rental income with very low effort) AND more flexibility than the homeowner (when I moved out, I could simply put another tenant in my side to cover the mortgage and make me a little money every month - a homeowner might lose money doing that and have to sell right away, even if it wasn't a great time to sell). You could also stay in the property forever and live for free forever. There are many parts of town here in Denver, many excellent, where you can buy a duplex and use this strategy to live for free or for significantly less than buying a home. I can't think of a single part of town where this would not be a more advantageous way to live, at very low life impact.

The advantages of this are fairly immediate and last forever if you keep the property, and you can literally do this for a year or two, and use the rental income to then pay for the bigger nicer house you want to live in permanently or raise a family in. In fact, many people raise excellent families in duplexes, townhomes, etc, so there's no reason you couldn't raise a family quite nicely in my former home while getting rather rich rather quickly. In fact, you actually get to CHOOSE your neighbors, so you are at less risk of having bad neighbors than the folks who just buy a home or rent!

Why WOULDN'T you do this?

I'm curious to the folks out there not doing this currently (people who have lived in their current home many years are excluded). What do you see as the downsides? Even though I've been doing this for years, with highly positive results, I feel that no one else I know is doing this and am beginning to get frustrated because I see such incredibly obvious, easy, ridiculously high value rewards to doing this for such a low effort! 

What do people that are smarter than I see here that I don't? What is the drawback that keeps people working $50,000 per year jobs for 40+ hours per week, but still refuse to move, then do the 5 extra hours per week to make $20,000 + per year and live for free!? I feel like most people would move across the country for a $20,000 per year raise. So, why do they refuse to move across town for the same financial benefit?

What are some valid reasons for not doing this? Can someone that prioritizes their financial freedom, makes between $50,000-$100,000 per year, has no rental properties, and a net worth below $100,000 explain to me why they would even begin thinking about other ways to build wealth and not immediately move towards this objective? What are other options that they believe to be more impactful to their financial positions, and less impactful to their lives, than house-hacking? How would that person propose to save or earn to build a comparable amount of wealth with less effort?

[Logan Allec]

@Scott Trench, I don't get it either!  I preach the House Hack Gospel to all of my friends, but the thought simply doesn't appeal to them.  They would rather pay through the nose in rent simply for the benefit of being able to walk to Whole Foods and blow the rest of their paycheck there.  Think about it, young'uns: if you’re in your 20s and currently unattached to children, house hacking is a no-brainer. If you do nothing else in real estate, you will have succeeded by getting into a fourplex as a young man or woman with only 3.5% down. Assuming the rents cover your expenses, in 30 years when you’re in your 50s and the mortgage is paid off, and you’ve done the smart thing by raising the rents over the years, you will be sitting on a multi-million-dollar asset that cash flows thousands of dollars per month at the cost of a measly $20k or so out-of-pocket when you were 20-something. I can’t think of any better way for young people with limited resources to prepare for their future so early on in life with so little cash out-of-pocket. Run the numbers and see for yourself.