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!