House Hack Success within the loop?

[Ryan Wasylik]

Does anyone have an success stories to share with house hacking one of the newer town houses within the loop of DT Houston. I am feeling inspired to try to obtain a new town home within the loop with 3 bedrooms/baths and house-hack with roommates to keep my cost of living close to zero. At the point I am ready to leave Houston I'd sell or keep as a rental property depending on cash flow vs appreciation at the time. Anyone done anything similar? Were you able to get roommates (preferably young professionals) and if so what could you charge for rent? I'd likely live in the smallest/least fancy of the bedrooms to make the nicer master /in-suite available for rent.

Possible scenario: 300K. 10% down. Morgtage +2K

Your constructive feedback / pointers are appreciated in advance

[Cody L.]

You can get roomates to help with mortgages.  That's a stratagy as old as time and before the term 'house hack' came to mean "roomate".  However, the more popular the area, the less rent you get per unit of rent.  So something thats in a place wyou want to be is going to still mean you have a decent payment (esp with prop tax) even after you put 1-2 roomates in there. 

When I bought my place in Montrose it was a 2 bed townhome I bought for $200k.  Mortgage + tax was about $2000.  I charged my roommate $1k.  It's a 2 bed (+ loft), 3 story. So we had the full second 'common area' floor between our rooms.  It worked out well.

Ironically I still have it.  Did a refi on it to get $ out, and now lease it for $2400 (the whole thing) and it covers my debt.  That's your endgame.  refi later, get all your $ out or more, and cash flow for infinite return.