House Hack Montgomery County, MD

[Jeremy D.]

Reading up on Montgomery County, MD but can't definitely tell - When does a house hack fall into an ADU? I know they recently passed ordinance/laws on ADU's last summer, if I'm not mistaken. But if I rent out rooms, when does the property fall under the prevue of the ADU laws? Is it only applicable if I then try to rent out a basement that has been converted?

House hacking seems to be a great option for this area, so I would love to learn more about this if people have experience on this topic.

[Russell Brazil]

Originally posted by @Kevin Wade:

@Russell Brazil . Hi Russell, I was looking to follow up on this post as i am also looking at a similar strategy and this was very helpful. It seems that getting an ADU would be tough to get in Montgomery county if renting a basement (with separate kitchen). You mentioned rental opp by the room in the higher price range may be a good option. Do you mean $400K +? What are your thoughts on Germantown and Gaithersburg in terms of rent by room options. I was looking at these areas as well as they were cheaper than buying in Rockville and also appeared to have some decent homes.

If getting the ADU would be tough in general and renting by the unit in those areas would also be challenging I may need to rethink my strategy.

I am doing this as a first time MD homebuyer and looking at my options to rent a portion of the home. Any insight that you have will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

 I dont like Gaithersburg due to the higher tax rate there. (Btw, I live there in crown, hate the taxes). Not sure what the room rental market would be in Germantown. I rather prefer Rockville and Silver Spring. High demand in those locations pushes rents and prices consistently higher year over year, access to commuting and metro reduces vacancy, much more demand for room rentals south of 200.