I actually had not planned any of this when I first bought the house, but I knew I wanted to renovate the house and not take out another loan, so I went the roommate route, and I'm so glad I did!

Zoning can help but be sure to read the code for yourself.Consider that there are  key times for what defines a separate unit -- a roommate living in the basement vs. separate entrance, utilities vs. separate utilities and a kitchen. 

My thought was to live in one side with a roommate. 

You can probably make even more with renting it out to a couple roommates.

Living in downtown San Francisco with 5 roommates is cool when you’re single… it’s not cool when you’re pregnant.So they’re coming to Sacramento and Stockton to look for more affordable housing and finally buy a house.

Stipulate the "no roommate" clause in your lease, then wait until it becomes  a problem before worrying about it. 

So in the event that one roommate doesn't pay, the others are equally responsible. 

(My Brother and a room mate are tenants).

Think about adding roommates to maximize your house hack.

I am mostly wondering if anyone has experienced this scenario before, where they owned and lived in a house with friends/other roommates, while you were still paying the mortgage.