Skip to main content
← TrueCap
House-hack-specific comparison

TrueCap vs BiggerPockets for House Hacking: which calculator handles owner-occupant deals correctly?

Both run house-hack underwriting. This is the house-hacker cut: which one models owner-occupant unit usage cleanly, FHA 3.5%-down financing, and surfaces "effective rent saved" — the metric that actually decides whether the deal beats just renting an apartment.

For house hackers

No card · Free analyzer covers house-hack underwriting

TL;DR for house hackers

TrueCapwins for house-hacking specifically — the explicit "owner-occupant" property type auto-excludes your unit from the rent income side, surfaces an "effective rent saved" metric, and properly frames cap rate around the rental units only. BiggerPockets' calculator treats the property as generic multifamily and requires you to mentally adjust the math for your owner-occupied unit. For the calculator alone, TrueCap Pro ($19/month) is half the price of BiggerPockets Pro ($390/year) and better-fitted to the house-hack workflow.

House-hack feature-by-feature

Where each tool wins on the house-hack-specific workflow.

FeatureTrueCapBiggerPockets
Owner-occupant property type
Yes — explicit 'owner-occupant' property type with per-unit setup
Standard multifamily form; you manually adjust
Per-unit rent + status modeling
Yes — mark which unit YOU live in; other units' rent counted
Manual — you adjust the rent calculation yourself
Effective 'rent saved' calculation
Yes — surfaces what your monthly housing cost actually is
You compute it yourself from the spreadsheet
FHA financing assumptions (3.5% down)
Yes — configurable down payment goes as low as 3.5%
Yes — configurable
House-hack-specific cap rate framing
Excludes owner-occupied unit from cap rate denominator (Pro)
Standard cap rate (you adjust manually)
Address auto-fill (rent/rate/tax)
Yes — HUD FMR per unit + FRED rate + state property tax
Manual entry
DSCR + lender approval modeling
Yes — DSCR calculation accounts for rental units only
Yes — basic DSCR
10-year projection (post-house-hack exit)
Pro — model what happens after you move out and rent your unit
Pro — projection available
Tax strategy (mortgage interest deduction)
Pro — handles owner-occupant interest deduction separately
Pro — standard tax view
Sensitivity grid (vacancy on rental units)
Pro — rent ±10%, vacancy ±5pp on rental units only
Manual re-runs
Mobile UX at the showing
PWA installable
Desktop-leaning calculator + separate mobile app
Free tier covers house hacking
Yes — full owner-occupant underwriting on free tier
Free calc covers basic; Pro ($390/yr) for projections
Standalone calculator pricing
Pro $19/mo (or ~$190/yr annual)
Bundled with $390/yr BiggerPockets Pro

BiggerPockets calculator details based on publicly available product info as of 2026. See biggerpockets.com/calculators for their current state.

Common questions about TrueCap vs BiggerPockets (House Hacking)

Quick answers to the questions investors comparison-shopping these tools actually ask.

Which is better for house hackers — TrueCap or BiggerPockets?
TrueCap, for house-hacking specifically. The big difference is the explicit "owner-occupant" property type — you mark which unit you'll live in, and TrueCap automatically excludes that unit's "rent" from the income side of the underwriting (because you're paying yourself, effectively). BiggerPockets' calculator treats the property as a generic multifamily and makes you mentally adjust the math for the owner-occupied unit. Both work; TrueCap is just less manual setup for the house-hack workflow.
Does TrueCap handle FHA 3.5%-down house hacks?
Yes — TrueCap's down payment field is configurable. Set it to 3.5% for FHA, 5% for conventional owner-occupant, 10-15% for bigger deals where you want a lower PMI burden. PITI and DSCR recalculate automatically. The FHA mortgage insurance premium (MIP) is not modeled as a separate line — bake it into the insurance field or accept that PITI will be slightly underestimated.
What's 'effective rent saved' and why does it matter?
When you house-hack, your monthly housing cost isn't the full PITI — it's the PITI minus the rent your rental units bring in. That gap is your "effective rent saved" vs a regular apartment lease. TrueCap surfaces this number explicitly so you can compare house-hacking vs renting an apartment at apples-to-apples. BiggerPockets' calculator requires you to compute it from the cash-flow line yourself.
Does the cap rate apply differently to a house hack?
Technically yes — strict cap rate uses NOI ÷ purchase price, but with house-hacking the "NOI" should arguably only count the rental units (not your owner-occupied one). TrueCap Pro can frame the cap rate either way (full property vs rental-units-only) so you see what the deal looks like both as you're living there and as a pure investment after you move out. Most house-hackers care more about the effective-rent-saved number and the post-move-out cap rate.
BiggerPockets calculator is bundled with Pro at $390/yr — is the calculator alone worth it?
For house-hacking specifically, no — TrueCap Pro at $19/month (~$190/year) covers the owner-occupant workflow more cleanly for half the price. BiggerPockets Pro at $390/year makes sense if you also use the community, courses, books, and podcasts; for the calculator alone, you're overpaying by ~$200/year.
What changes when I model the post-move-out scenario?
When you move out of the owner-occupied unit and rent it to a third tenant, you're back to a standard rental underwrite — all units producing rent, your housing cost moves elsewhere. TrueCap Pro's 10-year projection lets you model a "year you move out" assumption so the cash flow ramps from house-hack mode (one unit owner-occupied) to pure rental mode (all units rented) at the right inflection point.

Underwrite your first house hack — free.

TrueCap's free tier covers owner-occupant property types, per-unit rent + status, FHA financing, and effective-rent-saved math. Pro ($19/mo) adds projections, tax strategy, sensitivity, and the post-move-out scenario modeling.

Run a deal — 60 secondsFor house hackers