Can I house Hack as a College Student?

[Cesar Rivera]

Hello People of BP,

I'm currently a college student and am planning within the next two years, to buy and house hack to reduce my monthly living expenses even if its only by a few hundred dollars. I've done some studying and research for my area, but am unsure if I would be able to qualify for a FHA loan to fund my property. I would only have the income of a part timer and I also would have accumulated at least 30 k in student loans. I have a credit of around 740-760 which would qualify me for the better loans, but looking at my DTI, I'm not so sure I do qualify. Any information on the topic would be helpful.

Thank you,

-Cesar R.

[Landon Hoon]

Hi Cesar,

Yes, you can house hack as a college student! The tricky part is having acceptable income to get your debt to income ratio down.

One option you could do is to have a co-signer for income qualification. When buying a 2-4 unit property, FHA shoots up the down payment requirement if you have a non-occupying co-signer.

So to house hack with a low down payment using a non-occupying co-signer, a conventional loan with 5% down on a 2-4 unit will be best!