Planning on House Hacking and wanting to hear your experience

[Harsh Patel]

Hello Everyone, 

Since I live (rent) and work in South Orange County CA, buying my first investment property in this area is very much out of bounds for me given the astronomical prices. However, I am considering entering this market through the house hacking strategy and have started my search for a small multi-family property.

At present, I don't know much about how house hacking works (especially, in Orange County) in terms of qualifying for a FHA loan as well as any other specifics. I plan to research a bit more about this strategy, but figured it won't hurt to start looking for deals in the area regardless.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried (successfully or not), house hacking strategies themselves. Maybe share their best (or not so best) experiences, important things to consider, useful tips for newbies like me?

Thanks

[Sung Park]

Harsh Patel I’ve been hacking since last fall in a A class neighborhood. Since I have kids, being in a good school district was important so I’m glad it worked out for my wife and I. The other unit doesn’t cover all our monthly housing expense but enough that it is totally worth it. Even though the neighborhood is pretty good, I made sure to screen my tenants very carefully. So far, it’s been a great experience being a landlord and learning the ropes. Due to the market competition in the areas I want to house hack, I avoided FHA financing and went low down conventional and I will follow that same strategy for the next house hack. I don’t like the high MI for life of loan on FHA and it’s not as attractive to sellers in better neighborhoods.