All Forum Posts by: Hayden Clark

Greetings,

My wife and I were about to start looking to buy our first property. Our plan was to buy a duplex and house hack by living in one side and renting the other. A few years ago this seemed like such a good method, but with rates, prices, and supply where they are currently, I am not sure we can afford it or if this is our best option. It seems like we would be paying decently more even with the rental income than we would be just renting an apartment. Now we are questioning if there is a better method or if we should just rent an apartment for another year or two.

Option 1: buy a duplex or small multi-family and house hack. Live here for a few years before buying the next property. However, would rents (if we want to move) cover our mortgage and expenses? I am also wondering if we would feel stuck there, if renting both units would result in negative cash flow. Should we just be patient and try to find the right deal?

Option 2: We could just buy a single family home. Do some rehab to increase value. We also have a small family property in the mountains where we spend some time during the summer. We could potentially put our new Single family home on Airbnb up to approx 90-days a year. Then eventually turn it into a long term rental (or full time airbnb depending on local regs) when we buy our next property.

Option 3: Rent an apartment for another 1-2 years and wait for rates to drop and supply to increase. We could invest the approx $2000/month we would be saving by renting over buying.

Just looking for some opinions from people who are more knowledgeable about this than us. Are there other options we should consider? We need to stay in the greater Denver area with our jobs, but can do some remote work. We are also not looking to become full on real estate investors, but would like to try to have a property or two for future passive income.

Thanks!