Rent Hacking Plan, Help Me Evaluate

[Nicholas Graphia]

I'm looking to rent hack while I'm saving up for a down-payment on my first RE purchase. I'd like to use the money saved/earned rent hacking to invest in a triplex or fourplex. 

Here's my plan: Rent a nice 2 - 3 bedroom house in New Orleans, in a desirable neighborhood, and rent out the extra room(s) to carefully screened professional type roommates.

Hypothetical Numbers for 2 bedroom house:

Cash Outlay:
$1,500 deposit
$4,500 (3 months rent set aside as cushion in case of vacancies)
$1,500 for furniture purchase

-Find roommates through Facebook marketplace and/or personal network. I'm a single professional in my 30s
Income
Charge roommate $900/month + utility share + a security deposit. From their standpoint they get a turnkey place, and more square footage for their money compared to renting a 1 bedroom.

This would keep my monthly rent payment down to $600. My housing budget if I lived solo would be $1,200/month. So if the extra room rents 8 out of 12 months the rest of the year is a wash. But I could still rent the room to shorter term tenants if need be to keep the income stream going.

Seems simple enough, but there could be something I'm overlooking. Thoughts?

[Mike Wood]

@Nicholas Graphia  Sounds like you will be the only leaseholder and will attempt to sublet a bedroom.  I assume that you will qualify for the entire apartment ($1200/month) by yourself.  If you can't, this wont work as you will both need to be on the lease and thus sorta equal tenants.

I also suspect that your not going to find someone willing to spend extra money to be your roommate.  They can just as easily find another random roommate and split everything 50-50.  Rents in NOLA are fairly steady and easy to research.  I cant imagine that your prospect roommate's wont know what your paying and then ask why you want them to pay more.

You may also run into issues with the landlord by allowing adult occupants to live in the property that are not on the lease.  I know that my lease specifically states that is not allowed.  If a new tenant started to do what you are asking, it would be a violation of my lease and I would likely require that person to be added to the lease, or a new lease to be drafted up.