First House Hack Motivations

[Hayden Schaefer]

Greetings, I and a friend live in the NoVa area right outside of DC. We have a desire to dive in and buy a property together, yet we have enough of a downpayment for only 3 percent between the two of us. However, we have the ability to get a 3rd party involved that would help pay for the down payment to get us to 20 percent. This third party would act more as a personal loan rather than a straight up gift. It would equal the rate of the interest rate we were approved for. What do you think is the best course of action? Wait and get more capital? Buy it at 3 percent? Buy at 20 percent? Here for all the help!

[Joaquin Camarasa]

The situation you describe is exactly how I got started in real estate 7 years ago. A friend and I bought a single family we each had our room and we rented the other three rooms.

 I moved out of the property after a year and we pretty much were adapting to the situation without a clear plan. It all went well because we had a really close friendship but definitely is better to have a plan beforehand for any future scenario.

I would say start looking which areas would make sense for the both of you within your budget. Since you are planning to househack I would see who would be responsible for screening tenants, collect rent, handling property maintenance etc.

Depending how much you are paying in rent, it might make sense to buy with 3%.