House Hack
Buying a 2–4 unit property, living in one unit, and renting out the others.
Strategies
Why House Hack matters
Eligible owner-occupants may have lower-down-payment financing options than investors. Down payment, occupancy certification, unit-count eligibility, reserves, mortgage insurance, and any later change in use depend on the specific loan documents and program; a 12-month scenario does not itself authorize conversion to a rental.
How to check House Hack before you rely on it
Confirm the financing before the property. Ask the lender in writing which occupancy requirements, unit counts, reserve levels, and mortgage-insurance terms apply to the program you plan to use, and how long you must live in the unit. Then underwrite the building twice: once with you occupying a unit and paying part of the mortgage from your own income, and once fully rented after you move out. The second case is the one that tells you whether it is an investment.
Related terms
- Down Payment %
- Share of the purchase price you pay in cash. Required investment-property down payment varies by occ…
- Monthly Cash Flow
- Rent minus operating expenses minus mortgage payment. The cash that lands in your account each month…
- BRRRR
- Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. A strategy that seeks to reuse capital through new financing af…
Where House Hack shows up in TrueCap
A strategy sets which inputs the analyzer asks for and which outputs lead the results view. The core buy-and-hold flow is what every free analysis runs; specialist flows reuse the same engine and the same labeled assumptions, so a number that appears in two strategies was computed the same way in both.