What is the Perfect Layout for Room by Room House Hack?

[Levi Dobson]

I am looking into purchasing my second house hack and was wondering if any pro house hackers out there have a preferred layout with room by room house hacking. 

[Leo R.]

Quote from @Levi Dobson:

I am looking into purchasing my second house hack and was wondering if any pro house hackers out there have a preferred layout with room by room house hacking. 

 @Levi Dobson excellent question.

I think it's useful to consider this issue: What are the MOST COMMON problems people experience when they live with housemates? 

In my experience, the most common problems are: 1) there's not enough space for the people living in the house, 2) there's too much noise (created by the people living in the house), 3) there's too much mess (created by the people living in the house), and 4) the housemates don't have enough privacy.  These problems are often interrelated--for instance, if there's not enough space, this makes it more likely that the noise one housemate makes will bother another housemate.  

So, the house you get should be set up in a way that minimizes the likelihood of these problems.

A few important factors to consider:

First and foremost: you want large square footage, and lots of square footage per person.   5 housemates living in a 2000 sq ft house would probably be cramped, but 5 housemates in a 5000 sq ft house would probably be quite comfortable.

Lots of bathrooms (ideally a bathroom for every person living in the house). The more people have to share bathrooms, the less comfortable the housemates will be, and the more problems you'll have.

A layout that makes each bedroom relatively private and isolated--for instance, a bedroom that's down a hall and around a corner from the kitchen is much more private than a bedroom RIGHT NEXT to the kitchen, living room, or other high-traffic area.

A layout that minimizes the amount of traffic that goes by the bedrooms--for instance, a bedroom that's right next to the front door sees a lot more traffic than a bedroom at the back of the house.

Multiple floors, with the bedrooms and bathrooms on separate floors--for instance, I have a 3 story house that has 2 brs/1ba on the bottom floor, 2 brs/1ba on the middle floor, and 1 master suite on the top floor--this makes it so that no more than 2 people are "living" on each floor, and one person (the master suite) has a floor all to themselves--this provides a lot more privacy and living space for each person compared to a 5 br house where all br's and ba's are on the same floor.

Multiple exterior entries/exits in locations that allow tenants to come and go with minimal disturbance to the other housemates.

Carpet greatly reduces noise, whereas hardwood floors (especially old ones) can be very creaky.

A large kitchen with plenty of food storage space (and perhaps even multiple fridges and dishwashers) will be much more livable than a small, cramped kitchen.

Sufficient parking will be important.

Ideally, an HVAC system that allows each housemate to control the temp in their room would be great.

Closely consider what types of tenants would want to live in the property. For instance, will the tenants all be mature, high-income, 30-something professionals who all have plenty of experience renting properties and living with housemates? Or, is it 18 year old college kids who have never rented a property, who have no experience sharing a house with housemates, and who want to throw parties? The type of tenant the property attracts will make all the difference in the world.

Also, all the other usual principles of REI apply (e.g.; location, location, location, grade of the property, characteristics of the local tenant pool, etc. are all extremely important).

Good luck out there!