Looking to house hack in South Florida

[Kerli Casanova]

Hello everyone,

Looking into duplexes to buy as first-time buyer in the south Florida area. Tried last year but the deal didn't go through. Now im ready to go again.

[Matthew Kwan]

HI Kerli, 

Indeed, you can definitely househack in a multifamily by living one unit and renting out the other vacant units. The good thing about househacking a legal multifamily unit is that lender allows you to use the vacated units of 75% market rent as an income to offset the potential current mortgage. You can put a little as 5% down payment for conventional or 3.5% for FHA.

Alternative way, is to acquire the 2nd property as an investment property with conventional, while putting 15%-25% down payment. Down payment can be higher than primary, but the good thing is that you won't need that much income to qualify because lenders can you 75% of the market rents for the units of the property. Imagine the 2nd property is a 4plex, each unit can be rented $1500/unit of 75% =$1125 x 4 units =$4500 worth of income to offset your that 2nd property.

@Albert Bui @Carlos Valencia