House Hacking in the Basement of a SFH Townhouse

[Kristin Caras]

Hey everyone, hoping to gather some opinions on a potential rental property/house hack. I got a heads up from my agent that she has a property about to come on the market that is a SFH townhouse in a community that I've been interested in and has quite a few nice rentals in the neighborhood.

It is an end unit townhouse with a separate entrance to the finished basement that has a full bath. I would like to live in this basement “unit” for a bit while saving for another property and rent out the main townhouse upstairs, minus the basement.

Has anyone done anything similar? My main concern is if I would need a zoning change if I am renting to tenants and living there at the same time. However, I think this would be OK being that as the owner I would be the one in the basement and not renting it on two separate leases to two different groups of people if that makes sense. When I move out of this basement unit I would keep it as one unit, SFH rental.

(Just as an aside, I have definitely looked for true multi family homes, but there is a very limited supply in my area. I am continuing the search but am interested in making this property work as well. I’ve been in quite a few of these townhouse properties in this community and the basement is actually a good bit of space and when totally finished looks just like part of the main house, especially with its own entrance.)

Thanks in advance!