All Forum Posts by: Chad Gardner

@Joshua Silker Thanks for this! Good to know about St.Paul for sure. I'm still doing some thinking about which strategy, cash flow vs. appreciation, makes the most sense for us as a family. My main concern about actual house hacking for a few years in a row is that we don't want the kiddos to have to change schools once we relocate up there.

I'm thinking about getting an appreciation-oriented duplex/triplex in a pricier market with good schools that we could stay in for several years, and saving for an actual cashflow property that'd we buy as an investment property instead of a house hack. Does that seem reasonable?

Hey everyone,

We are a young family (8yo and 10yo), and are looking to move to the Twin Cities. My wife's sister lives in town and we want to join them. We also want to take the opportunity to start investing, and house hacking seems the way to go. We are looking to get a 2-4 unit place by this summer, ideally in Mac-Grove, Highland Park, or South Minneapolis. I'm part way through Craig Curelop's book, and starting to see what the market is like.

It seems like a lot of the properties will have negative cash flow even after the first year when we move out. This looks like a combination of interest rates and just relatively high prices still (e.g. most duplexes I've seen start at around 600k). Is that normal? Does that mean the market is just too pricy for a good house hack right now? Have you had success within the last year or two house hacking in these neighborhoods? Any thing to point me in the right direction would be great!

Thanks so much,

Chad