Anyone Househacking Multifamilies in New Orleans?

[Robert Power]

Hi all,

I am fairly new to BP so if this post is in the wrong place feel free to let me know.

Currently, I am looking into buying a duplex in New Orleans and living in one side. However, typically when I run the numbers on duplexes I am interested in, I am cash flowing negatively by around $300-500. Now, I know this should be the case since expenses are fairly high in New Orleans (I believe; correct me if I'm wrong), but I am just curious to see if anyone has been able to househack in New Orleans with a multifamily (can be triplex or fourplex too but I feel like those are hard to come by) and either break even or positively cashflow. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike Wood]

@Robert Power If you are thinking you can buy a duplex and have one unit rent cover all of the expenses, that will not happen (except in very rare cases in very marginal/bad areas) in New Orleans.  What you need to look for is if the property will cash flow with both units rented.

My first property was a duplex, where I lived in one unit and rented out the other to offset a lot of my expenses.  

There are areas in NOLA where if might be difficult to cash flow with both units rented, given the prices of real estate in the city.  These are generally the high cost areas.

While you might be able to find a triplex or a 4-plex that can cover all of the expenses with one unit unrented (i.e. owner occupied), there are not a lot of these in decent parts of the city, and when they do come up they are generally pretty pricey.