Beginning with a house-hack

[Eli Hibbert]

I'm hoping to start my real estate journey in Salt Lake City with a house-hack. My goal is to find a first property that will allow me to live for free and save up for the next one. I've begun running the numbers on some properties in the greater Salt Lake City area to better understand the market and I haven't found anything close to breaking even if I were to live there. Granted, I have only been running with Zillow properties without the help of professionals, I was still hoping to see more optimistic calculations.

Am I being too conservative by putting allowances for maintenance, vacancy, and etc.? Has anyone in the Salt Lake area had luck with creating a cash flowing or even cash neutral house-hack? I'd love to hear a success story. Thanks!

[Caleb Ryan]

If you're house-hacking I wouldn't be too worried about positive cash flow. I did my first one a few years ago and it was nice to have most of the mortgage paid for by my tenants. You'll still have expenses, but you'll be living much cheaper than going into a home on your own. 

If you can save money by having someone else pay most of your mortgage and have the appreciation in this market, you'll be sitting on a good amount of equity in the next couple of years. Then you'll have way more flexibility to invest in different ways when that time comes.