House hacking & +/- cash flow (while owner occupied)

[Chris R.]

Hey, Everyone.

I am curious to know how many folks have or had a positive cash flow while house hacking? I understand that deal analysis is based on a fully rented scenario but I am just interested in how many people actually achieve getting paid to live in their property.

Thanks!

[Dan Smith]

I bought a 3-fam with my fiancee in December 2015.  We live in Bradford, MA - this is considered a nicer part of Haverhill, so we can demand higher rents.  When I bought the house, there were tenants paying 850 on the first floor, 900 on the third floor, and the second floor was empty.  When I told everyone that I would be able to get more in rent, no one believed me and said I was making a horrible mistake.

Flash forward to now, we kicked the first floor out, renovated that and turned it into our unit. I now get 1,400/mo for my second floor (No renovations other than fresh paint on the wall) and 1,200/mo for the third floor (no renovations at all). Our purchase price was 373k and all in, our cost is 2,505/month, we went FHA, so a little over 300 of that is PMI. I have a calculator that I created to know when I'm at 20% equity so we can refi and change all that!

When we factor in our own monthly bills, we come out just about even each month, but I'm sure when I move out I can get 1,500-1,600/mo in positive cashflow.  You can definitely do it, you just need to make sure you're doing all the math and research appropriately.  

Let me know if you'd like to discuss anything further, I'm happy to provide thought processes:)