House hacking a 4-plex: Lessons learned, experiences

[Andrey Y.]

Greetings, everyone. I wanted to get your take and experience on househacking a triplex or fourplex. Were you single/married? Any privacy or safety issues? Any awkwardness being the "big bad landlord"? Tenants may perhaps also see your nicer cars in the driveway, I feel like that may generate a lot of animosity. The market I will be moving to, I think this would be the only investing I would consider there, otherwise I would just rent and deploy capital elsewhere. Also, not sure I would like to do this for more than one year, so maybe just buying with a VA / FHA etc. and renting out all 4 units might be a better strategy. Just thinking out loud. Would love to hear your thoughts.

[Nicole A.]

I feel like it's too much work to lie about it... If you have decent tenants, they will not treat you badly simply because they know you're the owner. If anything, they either won't care/be indifferent or be better. If they become high-maintenance or argumentative simply because you're the owner, I'm sure they would still be this way if you're just the "manager." And at that point, you become professional and draw some boundaries on that kind of behavior.

Plus, how embarrassing if you are found out. Why such a secret? It's not like it's out of this world to own a 4-plex and also live in it.