Live in one, rent the others. Do the math first.
TrueCap handles the math that makes house hacks unique: owner-occupant break-even bands, FHA 3.5% down, MIP, your-unit subsidy, with a separate-scenario workflow for a later move-out.
Free screen: no card or signup
Why house hacks need a different analyzer
Most calculators treat every deal as pure investment. House hacks aren't — and the wrong math gets you to the wrong answer.
- Owner-occupant math, not investor math
- Choose the Owner Occupant property type. The engine knows you live in one unit (no rent), so the deal scoring uses the right break-even bands instead of investor-style cash-flow thresholds.
- FHA 3.5% down — modeled correctly
- Set down payment to 3.5%, enter the lender's annual MIP in the dedicated PMI / MIP field, and select the loan-life option when it applies. Add any upfront premium to closing costs if it is not financed. The starter 'FHA 3.5% owner-occupant' template pre-fills editable screening defaults.
- Multi-unit revenue, your-unit subsidy
- Multi-family mode lets you set rent for each unit individually. Mark one as your unit (zero income, full carrying cost share). See how the rented units offset your housing.
- Plan the later rental as a separate scenario
- The live-in model does not switch automatically in year two. Save a separate full-rental scenario with your unit rented, then compare the assumptions explicitly.
The house-hack workflow
- Open Templates (Pro) and clone the 'House hack' or 'FHA 3.5% owner-occupant' starter — the defaults are already shaped for your strategy.
- Paste the listing address (the engine handles 2-4 unit multi-family automatically).
- Set per-unit rent for the units you'll rent out. Leave your-unit rent at $0.
- Run the analysis to see your monthly out-of-pocket (the gap between rent collected and total carrying cost). Owner-occupant scoring uses the right break-even bands.
- Save the live-in underwrite as its own base decision.
- Create a separate full-rental scenario with your unit rented. TrueCap does not automatically switch occupancy in a future year; compare the two explicit scenarios and verify the later market rent.
Why house hackers pick TrueCap
- Right math.
- Owner-occupant scoring uses ±$300/mo break-even bands, not investor $1,000/mo bands. A deal scoring 60+ as an investment might score 80+ as a house hack.
- FHA 3.5% template ready to clone.
- One click pre-fills the down %, MIP, term, vacancy assumption.
- Per-unit rent.
- Multi-family mode lets you model each unit independently — the only way to get house-hack math right.
- Separate transition scenario.
- Preserve the live-in assumptions, then model the later full-rental state as a distinct saved scenario.
Recommended reading and tools
Start with the deep-dive on house hacking explained and the comparison of single-family vs multi-family properties. Screen candidates fast with the free analyzer in House Hack mode — your effective housing cost after tenant rent. Once you've picked a property, ground the numbers in the TrueCap analyzer — cap rate and DSCR for the rented portion — then run the year-1 screen with the 60-second underwriting workflow.
Screen the live-in year, then preserve a separate move-out scenario.
Free covers monthly out-of-pocket, cap rate, and CoC for a first-pass live-in-year screen. Pro adds saved scenarios and comparison so the later full-rental state can be modeled separately; there is no automatic year-two occupancy switch.
Evaluating a non-owner-occupied rental? See TrueCap for buy-and-hold investors.
Are you an agent working with investor clients? See TrueCap for agents