Post-HouseHack strategy? Can I afford a single family home after?

[Grant Matz]

Hello all, I’m currently in the market right now for a 2-4plex to live in, and then rent out the other unit(s) with as little downpayment down as humanly possible. Looking in Minneapolis/Saint Paul area if that helps. However, my longtime girlfriend keeps bringing up a good point about house hacking that I can’t seem to give a complete straight answer to. Looking for some wisdom here. Just graduating college and looking forward to this long term investment.

Question: Can we really afford to buy a single family home for ourselves after living in our 2-4 plex 12-24 months after our 3.5-5% down duplex purchase? That’s currently our plan as my girlfriend does not want to live in this duplex for any longer than two years. To be honest the only reason we haven’t pulled the trigger on buying a duplex yet is this question. I understand you will need financial specifics so here they are.

Most likely purchase (almost did this exact scenario): 3.5-5% down—$225k purchase price, 0-3% closing costs, 6% vacancy rate, $2400 in rents.

Financials: My soon to be fiancé and I make a consistent $80k/year combined, likely to increase in coming years. We both have 750+ credit scores. After 1-2 years we’d be looking for a single family home to live in between $190-260k.

End all question— Do you think it’s more than likely with this given info that if we bought this $225k duplex tomorrow we’d be able to afford another home to live in a year or two later?