Plus, appreciation barely moved an inch while the HOA fees kept shooting up. 😬 Long story short, I decided to sell after a decade of being a landlord.

I barely use cash at all these days.

They were meant as temporary housing for soldiers returning from the war, but some are still holding on, just barely.

Many friends of mine (age 30s) barely putting away 2% 😳

Of course, with all my baring teeth, the situation is much more complex: I absolutely don't want to inherit this tenant with children and deal with an eviction situation in MA - yet, I need this house for all hosts of personal reasons, including taking care of a family member with advanced cancer.

I wanted to and recommend that you use 3-5% down conventional financing for SFH house hacking but my DTI was just barely too high for conventional.

@Joe Gore 3x rent is a bare minimum in my mind......the way I understand it is that the calculation is based on before taxes, so taxes right off the bat eats away 1/3 of their income and then If people have one or more kids, a low income job, utilities, food for their family, clothing, medical bills, etc. then how are they going to cover the rent?

I've thought about ripping everything out and just doing bare minimal landscaping but this would probably cost in the ballpark of $10k due to the labor, and then when I go to sell it one day, it wouldn't have the same curb appeal.

I liked the big commissions in the day 10%  and I double ended virtually everything I sold because most realtors can't even find bare land...

It’s my grandparents home and can’t bare to lose it.