That's a perfectly good option if you're up for it.Remember that the goal of a house hack doesn't need to be to 'eliminate' housing cost entirely. 

Yes, in a perfect world, NOI is the correct measurement of value. 

The main thing to remember is that not every deal will be a "perfect" BRRRRR.

But credit was perfect as I knew the importance of good credit.

Hi Neal,Makes perfect sense.

It would be perfect to make the lower level a master suite or an in law apartment.

"Not at all" is a perfectly acceptable answer. 

They work for a company who pays the rent because they are TDY, their credit is horrible, they are afraid of all the paperwork and big banks and would rather deal with a one page lease agreement and someone they "know", they plan on having kids and want to wait to find the "perfect" home, their parents always rented instead of bought, they manufacture or sell drugs and they move a lot, and/or they are just stupid.

While they don't have everything perfected quite yet I do feel that this tool is going to be very helpful in the future.

But now that I AM thinking about it - it makes perfect sense to think of $500,000 as "mid-six-figures".