House hacking help...need help thinking outside the box

[Greg Pasquale]

My circumstances (by choice) have me staying where I currently live another 4 years or so.  Multi-family homes (if any are even available) are through the roof, as are taxes, and it's very competitive.

My goal at this point is to live rent/mortgage free while breaking into real estate investing.

When I run numbers for a house hack whether it needs rehab, doesn't need rehab, I put 20% down or consider an FHA...my income from rent doesn't come close to covering my expenses to at least break even.

I've seen some creative things on this forum using all sorts of strategies and creative financing options (hard money to eventually refinance etc) but they all seem to work with flips or buy and holds or when the buyer doesn't need to live in his purchase.

Any creative financial angles or over all strategies that I can make work?  I'm new and unfamiliar with the myriad ways to borrow so I'm probably not seeing lots of more complex or robust options.

As an example...a 2 family home that needs work still goes for upwards of 400k to 450k.  A steal would be 300 to 350k and would need major and structural rehab.

If I put 20% down my disposable cash would be tapped out and still not cover my monthly. If I use FHA and rehab, still won't cover monthly. My equity might be better in a few years but it doesn't solve my current goal of living mortgage free.

Help!

[Brian G.]

@Greg Pasquale if you are single rent out the extra unit AND all the bedrooms in the unit you live in and sleep on the couch!