The New (Better) House Hack: No Roommates, More Rent

Summary

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Podcast Summary: BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

Episode: The New (Better) House Hack: No Roommates, More Rent

Date: October 3, 2025

Host: Dave Meyer
Guest: Henry Washington

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Overview

This episode dives deep into reinventing house hacking for the 2025 real estate market. Dave Meyer and Henry Washington discuss how the classic strategy of using your primary home to build wealth still works—even when interest rates and home prices are high—if investors adapt to new realities. They explain new lending options, creative house hack variations, risk management tips, and address common objections, making the case that house hacking remains one of the lowest-risk and most powerful ways to accelerate financial independence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Is Traditional House Hacking Dead?

• Host (Dave Meyer) opens by acknowledging that while rising home prices and higher interest rates have made classic house hacking (buying a small multifamily, living in one unit, renting the others) less immediately profitable, it’s far from obsolete.
• Key Theme: House hacking needs an update—not a funeral.

“The old way, it needs a refresh. And this is the new, better way to house hack in 2025. It still makes you wealthy, it still works with low money down. But only if you make these updates for the 2025 housing market.” (A, 00:24)

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2. House Hacking, Defined and Defended

• Simple Definition: Monetizing your primary residence—multifamily or single family, renting units or rooms, cash flowing, or just reducing living costs.
• Benefits Highlighted:
  • Reduces or eliminates your largest expense: housing.
  • Forces personal savings by lowering out-of-pocket housing costs.
  • Works as "training wheels" for aspiring landlords.
  • Offers stable, long-term fixed-rate debt (e.g., 30-year mortgage).
  • Highly scalable: Repeat annually to grow a portfolio.

“I really just define it as you monetizing your primary residence…there’s a lot of ways to generate income from your primary residence, no matter what kind it is.” (B, 01:46)

Personal Stories:

• Henry shares about his own house hack—living in a house with an ADU, renting out the ADU, saving $1,000/month, and rolling those savings into future investments.
• Dave discusses his “training wheels” house hack and the foundational impact on his investing journey.

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3. Why House Hacking Still Works in 2025

Rents Up—So Are Opportunities

• Rents have increased alongside home prices, so the relative benefit of offsetting high rent with a fixed mortgage remains strong.

Lending Products Have Evolved

• 5% Down Payments: Thanks to recent Fannie Mae changes, investors can now purchase 2-4 unit properties with as little as 5% down (was 20%+).
• Renovation Loans: FHA 203k, Fannie Mae Homestyle, Freddie Mac ChoiceRenovation, and VA renovation loans let house hackers borrow to both buy and rehabilitate properties.
  • Lenders now often include future rental income in borrower qualification, enabling bigger purchases.

“It’s pretty industry standard now, 5% down…Also, lenders know how to underwrite these better…they’ll actually consider the rents for the property you’re looking to buy as income.” (B, 15:56)

Market Conditions

• Inventory is up, buyer demand seasonally down (holidays), opportunities to negotiate below asking price and find value-add properties are increasing.
• Contractors are more available than in the recent past.

Lower Risk Than Most Investments

• House hacking directly reduces your living expenses, thus lowering overall financial risk.
• Even if properties don’t immediately cash flow, investors can often cover the gap through saved rent.

“It’s probably the lowest-risk real estate investing strategy out there.” (A, 11:28)

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4. Updated Buy Box & Risk Management (21:14)

• New Criteria:
  • Don’t expect to live for free—focus on big expense reduction, not elimination.
  • Factor in rent growth: Predict when a property will break even (e.g., minor negative cash flow for 1-2 years before rents catch up).
  • “Can I afford to carry the property if I have to move out quickly and it doesn’t fully cash flow?” (A, 21:39)
  • Protect downside risk: Only buy what you could afford to hold through a tough period.

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5. Variations and Creative House Hacking

Standard Play

• Duplex/triplex/quadplex—live in one, rent the rest.

Beyond Multifamily (26:17)

• Rent by the Room: Buy a single family and rent out spare bedrooms. Degrees of discomfort range from roommates to “Craig Kerlop-style” (living behind a curtain).
• Short-Term Rentals: Airbnb a room or unit to avoid long-term roommates.
• Amenity Rentals: Use apps to monetize pools (Swimply), backyard space (Sniff Spot), garages (Neighbor), or home offices (PeerSpace).
• Live-in Flips: Buy a fixer-upper, use a renovation loan, live in it for 2+ years, capture tax-free gain on sale, then repeat.

“You can still monetize…It’s going to require some level of uncomfortability. Wealth is not built in your comfort zone.” (B, 26:52)

“If you live there for two years, then when you sell that property, you don’t have to pay the capital gains taxes and you can literally pocket that money…” (B, 29:46)

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6. Scalable & Repeatable

• Buy one house hack per year—use a mix of FHA, conventional, and other loans.
• In 3 years, accumulate 6–12 units with very little money down, repeat for stable long-term wealth.
• Each property holds value both for living cost offset and eventual retirement supplement.

“If you are, especially if you’re young and single, why wouldn’t you buy a duplex a year, live in one unit, rent out the other…Let’s just say you did that three times…that could be your retirement, right?” (B, 09:39, 10:23)

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7. Discomfort and Mindset: The Reality Check

• Acknowledge potential discomfort—roommates, shared walls, temporary living situations (“friend’s grandma’s basement”).
• Wealth-building requires getting outside your comfort zone—find your own “line” for discomfort vs. profit.
• The hosts push back on overblown fears about sharing walls or renting rooms. Many people do this by default in apartments or with roommates.

“If you think you’re going to achieve wealth or financial freedom without getting uncomfortable, I’ve got bad news for you. You’re probably not going to get there.” (B, 32:30)

“On the spectrum of discomfort to opportunity, house hacking is like truly the best…” (A, 34:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s not the fact that you offset your mortgage, it’s what you do with the savings that helps you be successful.” — Henry (B, 05:03)
• “You don’t need to cash flow on a house hack to make it work.” — Dave (A, 05:50)
• “Rent growth is going to improve year over year, maybe in two or three years that [$300 deficit] is absorbed by rent growth…now you’re cash flowing.” — Henry (B, 22:42)
• “The more uncomfortable you’re willing to get, the more profitable you’re going to be.” — Henry (B, 26:52)
• “It’s a gift. The fact that you can do this…putting 3.5% down with fixed rate debt is one of the best investments in the world.” — Dave (A, 34:58)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:24 – The case for a new, updated house hack for 2025
• 02:52 – Why people think house hacking is “dead" or “harder”
• 04:59–08:00 – Personal stories and the real benefits of house hacking
• 09:39–11:17 – The “one-a-year” house hack strategy for fast scaling
• 15:06–18:16 – Lending changes, new low-down payment and renovation loan options
• 18:42–21:32 – Market timing and crafting your buy box in 2025
• 26:17–30:15 – Creative ways to house hack (room rentals, amenity apps, live-in flips)
• 32:07–34:58 – Rant: The necessity—and limits—of discomfort for financial growth
• 34:58 – Final encouragement: House hacking is still a “gift” in today’s market

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Tone and Style

The conversation is enthusiastic, candid, and encouraging, frequently blending practical tips with personal stories. Dave and Henry openly acknowledge challenges and trade-offs but consistently reframe them as reasonable and surmountable, stressing the massive upside for those willing to adapt.

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Takeaways

• House hacking isn’t dead; it just looks different in 2025—a flexible, creative approach is key.
• It remains a powerful, low-risk wealth building strategy, especially with updated loan products.
• Comfort zone is the enemy of wealth—embracing mild discomfort compounds into massive financial rewards.
• Whether you’re single, partnered, young or older, there’s a way to house hack that can move you forward.

Go out and try the new, better house hack—no roommates required (but more rent is possible)!

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Transcript

[A]

Is the traditional house hacking strategy finally dead? In the past, it was one of the most proven ways to build wealth. But interest rates and home prices are much higher now. Living for free isn't nearly as easy as it was pre pandemic. And in fact, for most house hackers, it's incredibly difficult to find. So can we declare house hacking dead? No. But the old way, it needs a refresh. And this is the new, better way to house hack in 2025. It still makes you wealthy, it still works with low money down. But only if you make these updates for the 2025 housing market. Today, we're going to show you how. Hey, everyone. I'm Dave Meyer, rental property investor and the head of real estate investing here at BiggerPockets. And with me today on the podcast is my friend, Henry Washington. What's up, man? How are you?

[B]

Hey, what's up, buddy? I'm doing great.

[A]

Talking about something you've never talked about before. It's the first time we've ever talked about house hacking.

[B]

What is this house hacking you speak of?

[A]

Oh, well, I'm so glad you asked for our audience. If you actually haven't heard of house hacking, it's when you buy a multifamily property, live in one unit, and rent out the others to help cover your living expenses, help generate cash, scale your portfolio. You can also do it with the rent by the room strategy, where you buy a single family home, live in one bedroom, and rent out the others. But both really work and listen, I'm like joking around with Henry, but we get it. You've heard about house hacking on the show, but you know what? When it stops making you rich and it stops being one of the best strategies to pursue, then we'll stop talking about it. But that hasn't happened yet, so we are going to keep talking about it.

[B]

It's just a really good way to get into this business. I really just define it as you monetizing your primary residence because it can be a single, it can be a multi, but there's a lot of ways that you generate income from your primary residence, no matter what kind of primary residence it is.

[A]

I couldn't agree more. And I know there are hordes of people who say that your primary home is not an investment. I think it is completely a choice. And that is what we're going to be talking about here today. And this format that we're going into is something we've been testing out over the last couple of weeks, where Henry and I are talking about updates to new strategies. And if you're watching this on YouTube, listening on Spotify, leave us a comment, Let us know if you like this format. If you want to see more of these kinds of shows, give us ideas for shows, we would love to hear your opinions on that. But today we're going deep into house hacking. So, Henry, let me just ask you this. Why do you think some people are saying right now that house hacking doesn't work as well as it did in the past? Or maybe they're as dramatic as saying that it is dead?

[B]

Yeah, I think that's just been like what people are doing with strategies that were really, quote, unquote easy to do a couple of years ago is just saying that they're dead now because it's harder. And I wouldn't even necessarily go as far as to say that house hacking is harder. It's just different. A lot of things have happened over the past couple of years that actually make it more accessible than it was before. As the common investor is now more savvy to what this is, lenders have started to pick up on what this is.

[A]

That's true.

[B]

There's been changes with lending that allow for this to be easier and less expensive for primary home buy. Some of the red tape isn't as bad as it was before with some of the loan products. And so I, I wouldn't necessarily say it's harder to house hack. I think what people are saying in general about the real estate market is that it's harder to find properties where the numbers make sense at first glance.

[A]

All right, so for those of our audience who's maybe newer doesn't fully understand house hacking and why it's so beneficial, maybe talk to us a little bit, Henry, about, you know, the top benefits that you see.

[B]

The best benefit is reduc what most people's largest living expense is. And that's typically housing. And so house hacking allows you to reduce that and in some cases eliminate that expense. Because the income you produce through renting out the other units or monetizing the property in some other way typically covers the majority, if not all of your mortgage. And so, you know, I speak about this because I did it, you know, I bought a single family home with a, with an ADU. And this was back in 2018, I think I bought it. And so we lived in the three bed, two bath house and we rented out the one bed, one bath house. Our mortgage, I think it was around $1,200 or $1,300 at the time. And we were Able to rent out the one bedroom unit for about just under a thousand bucks a month. And so we had to pay somewhere between two and $300 a month of our mortgage after we brought in that income.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

And prior to us buying and moving into this two family, we lived in a single family where we were paying about $1,500 a month with no income. And so what that allowed us to do. And I think the key to house hacking is this part I'm about to say. It's not the fact that you offset your mortgage, it's what you do with the savings that helps you be successful. And I think that that's the thing people don't talk about. And so what we did was we were used to paying 1,500, and we didn't stop paying 1,500. We just paid the additional into a savings account because we didn't want to adjust our lifestyle to not have that bill because at some point we are going to have a mortgage again. And, you know, I didn't want lifestyle creep to take away from the savings that we were getting. And so we just banked that money every month so that we could use it as a down payment on the next home.

[A]

That's a perfect explanation of the benefit and why it still works. Because as Henry just showed you, you don't need to cash flow on a house hack to make it work. I think one of the top three, five deals I've ever done was a house hack I lived in. I still paid a little bit out of pocket every month, but I lived in this house for two years. And probably similar, I think, like, you know, I was living by myself, probably like 1500 bucks down to 2, 300, very similar change. And I saved so much money over that time. It also, like, happened to correspond with a time where I got my master's degree and my earnings went up and I just could start saving money. And like, I had bought deals before that, but I think it was like, really when I start to see, like, oh, I can actually build a portfolio. Yeah, you know, I'm no longer thinking about, like, how do I borrow money or partner with people. It's like, oh, I could just save the money and finance that renovation, or I can save the money up and buy another house hack in the next couple of years. And that was just like a huge unlock. But I want to talk about two other things that I just love about house hacking. Number one, it's just, I feel like it's training wheels. If you're starting Out. It's a great way to learn how to be a property manager because you're on site, you see everything. You learn how systems work in a building, you learn how to take care of the outside of a building, you learn what it's like to manage tenants and we'll get into this. I also think everyone's so dramatic about managing tenants. But you know, I just think it's an awesome way to learn and it's not just for new people. But I just wanted to say like that I think is a really big value and then the last thing is the older I get, man, I have full circle old person approach to investing. I'm like, how do I save taxes and how do I get stable debt in my life? And like I love that about house hacking. You can get a 30 year fixed rate mortgage on two to four units. That is a dream. Like you can get multiple units fixed rate debt. It's beautiful. When my wife and I were looking houses, we looked at two properties where we were going to house hack. Yeah, I'm 38 years old. Like I would keep doing it. I bought my first house like 15 years ago. I'd keep doing it.

[B]

It doesn't stop.

[A]

Yeah, I know. Like I wound up not doing it because I found what I think will be a better live in flip. Right? Because there's just a different. But like I'm still looking for ways to earn money off my primary residence.

[B]

Two things. A live in flip is a house hack in my opinion. Because you're monetizing your personal residence.

[A]

That's true. By your definition it is.

[B]

And secondly, like technically I'm still house hacking because what we did was we saved up that difference in mortgage payment. So we were saving about $1,000 a month or more that we were used to paying in mortgage and we were just put in a savings account. When we bought the house we live in now, we use that money we saved as our down payment. We rented out the unit we were living in and then we just take that surplus and we use that surplus as part of our mortgage payment at our new house. So that duplex is technically covering half of the mortgage payment. And at my, at my current home.

[A]

It'S the gift that keeps on giving.

[B]

It's brilliant. And then now we bought 20 acres and we're going to build a home on that. I'm going to have four units, so three Airbnbs and then part of my party barn will have a two bedroom unit in it. Those short term rental units, we're going to use to offset the mortgage.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. It's amazing. And like again, training wheels because you taking care of a short term rental, sometimes it can be hard taking care of it in your backyard a little bit. You know, it just, yeah, it just still, it makes everything just a little bit easier. So I mean, these are some of the many benefits. The other thing I will just mention here is that it is more scalable than people think. Like you can do one of these a year. Probably one of the most common ways I see people scale quickly is this one a year house hack strategy. Do you, you see this, right?

[B]

I tell people this all the time. I'm like, just think, just think about it for, for a second. If you are, especially if you're young and single, why wouldn't you buy a duplex a year, live in one unit, rent out the other unit, then after you've been there for six months, start shopping for your next one, do it again on a conventional loan. So you can do an FHA loan for the first one, do a conventional loan for the second one and then do it again.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And let's just say you did that three times.

[A]

You get six to 12 units.

[B]

Six to 12 units that you got in with a 5% down payment. Rents are going to increase over time. Your property value is going to go up over time. And if you never bought another property in 30 years, those things are paid off and they supplement your retirement. That's amazing.

[A]

Like depending on the properties you do.

[C]

You pay those off.

[B]

That could be your retirement, right? Absolutely.

[A]

The right 12 units, like the one I was talking about, that, the three unit that I used to house hack, the one I was talking about before, like to me, in my mind, that's my retirement. Like it generates, I think it's like already right now, 8,500amonth in rent. I've already owned it for 11 years. So when I pay that off, like the rent's probably 10 grand a month. That one property, right. I bought that. Was I cash flowing? No, but like it's just I bought a good deal, right. And I'm holding onto it. Rocket science stuff, but like it's going to be amazing. Like you could do that two or three times, just fundamentally change your entire life.

[B]

Listen, if you're single or you're married with no kids, you should buy a duplex, triplex or quadplex a year and do that every year until you're not single anymore and your spouse says, I will never share walls again. Just keep doing it, Just keep doing it.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's me because I, you know, my mom lives in an apartment. You know, I'm used to apartment buildings. Like, I just don't think it's weird to share walls. Like, it's just a normal thing.

[B]

There's a lot of places in the country where that's very normal.

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to throw them. One other thing, it's probably the lowest risk real estate investing strategy out there. If you are trying to get in and you don't want to take a lot of risk. Buying something that lowers your living expenses is lowering your overall financial risk. Even though you're buying an asset, it is lowering your overall risk. And that's an incredible thing, especially in today's day and age. It's good hedge against inflation. There's always some risk, but there are very few ways that it can go wrong with house hacking. All right, so now you've heard enough about why we love house hacking so much. But we got to talk about how to update your approach to house hacking in 2025 and how to go out and find great house hacks. We'll get into that right after this break. This week's bigger news is brought to you by the Fundrise Flagship Fund. Invest in private market real estate with the Fundrise Flagship fund. Check out fundrise.com pockets to learn more.

[C]

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[A]

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[C]

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[A]

To the BiggerPockets podcast. Me and Henry are here talking about house hacking before we shared our love letters to house hacking and how we're going to talk a little bit about modern update to how to go about house hacking. So as you said earlier, housing is more expensive relative to rents. It's probably not going to offset as much as your income as it would have a couple of years ago. We should be honest about that. But you also actually said there are ways that it's gotten easier to house hacks, particularly around debt products. Can you tell us more about that?

[B]

I think it was back in 2023 where Fannie basically came out and said 5% down on all two to four units is what will be required going forward it used to be you would call around and you'd want 5% down. And once they found out you were buying a multi, they'd say, no, you have to put 20.

[A]

They'd laugh at you.

[B]

That's not the case anymore. It's pretty industry standard now, 5% down. Also, lenders know how to underwrite these better. Before, it was difficult to qualify for how much a multifamily was going to cost you because multifamily would typically cost more than single families. But now they know how to underwrite them and they'll actually consider the rents for the property you're looking to buy as income for you, and that increases the income that you earn, essentially allowing you to qualify for more. So it's easier to get approved to do these now. The process is a lot easier now than it was prior to 2023 just to get approved to do these house hacks. And then there's other loan products that are available to you to allow you to buy a house hack so you can. Everybody is pretty familiar now with the FHA 203k loan, which is a loan that allows you to use an FHA loan but also get money to renovate the property.

[A]

Great product if you want to do a house act. Yeah.

[B]

Fannie Mae has its own version, which is a Fannie Mae style renovation loan. It's a conventional loan, so you'll have to put the 5% down, but it will allow you to buy the property and make the improvements to the property. They'll give you money for the improvements. And then Freddie Mac has the Freddie Mac Choicer renovation loan, and then there's a VA renovation loan that will allow you to use a VA loan and give you the money to renovate the property. Now there's going to be red tape with all of these. You have to find a contractor who's willing to put up with a lot of the hoops that they'll have to jump through in order for you to get get the renovation money to pay them. But again, red tape doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Red tape just means go find the contractor who's going to work with you through this process. There are contractors that probably specialize in working with people who do these things. You just have to go looking for these people.

[A]

The whole context of this conversation is how to adapt house hacking for 2025. This is a perfect example because we're seeing construction slowing down and although in some markets it's still hot, hard to find contractors, I am in the midst of my first time flip right now. And honestly, it hasn't been that hard to find trades and contractors right now. And from everything Henry tells me, James tells me, when we're talking on, on the market, it sounds like it's getting a little easier. Would you say that?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

So, like, this is the kind of thing where, yeah, it's a little bit more expensive, but everything in real estate or investing in general is a trade off. And so, yeah, some things are getting a little harder, but as Henry is really accurately pointed out here, some things are getting easier, loan products being one of them, and maybe availability of contractors who are willing to take on some of these awesome loan products is another benefit of the market that we're in right now.

[B]

And from a timing perspective, I think this is a great time because inventory is up and we're going into the holiday season, which means buyer demand will go down. And that means that there's more opportunity for someone who is looking to get a property that has some wiggle room in it or that has some distress on it because there's going to be less buyers right now. And so if you have an opportunity to now go in and start making offers on these properties at lower than what they're asking for and potentially getting that offer accepted. So if you can come in, find yourself a property that has some equity or room in it and then make an offer to them at a price point that makes sense for you, and then utilize one of these loan products, you can get yourself a good deal and get the money to renovate the property. You move into a house with some equity and now you're house hacking and you are covering the majority of your mortgage.

[A]

If Henry is saying that this is a good time to go find a house hack, I absolutely believe him. Just like from a macro perspective, it's also a good time to do it because rent's just super expensive. And so it's like when you do the calculation of how much money you're saving. Yeah, it's. Your mortgage is going to be more. That is true. But what you're replacing with that mortgage is also way higher. And you're going to fix that mortgage rate. Right. So even though your rents could keep going up in the next couple years, probably. Well, that mortgage rate you're placing that rent with, that will stay the same. And so that, that does sort of make it another good time to do this because rents, I think they're going to start picking back up in 2026. So it's another reason to do it.

[B]

I mean, if we look at the house that I talked about, that I did, that I still own, when I moved into it, we were renting the one bedroom. I think I said 900. I think we originally rented it for somewhere around like 800. That one bedroom now rents for 1200.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And the three bed, two bath that we were living in when we moved out, I think we rented it for fourteen or fifteen hundred dollars. That three bed, two bath now rents for somewhere closer to eighteen hundred dollars.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So we're getting just under three grand or right around three grand a month out of that property. But my mortgage, because we got fixed rate debt, is still 1200 bucks.

[A]

Still the same. Yep. And that will keep happening as long as you hold on to that property. I agree with you. Inventory is going up. These deals are going to become more abundant. What are some things, you know, people should include in their buy box if they're looking for a house hack?

[B]

So what I would be looking for is something where your living expense is going to be cut down dramatically. So if you can go from paying for $2,000 a month down to paying 8, 900, $1,000 a month, that's a win. You're able to pocket $1,000 a month and then use that to save up for your next investment property.

[A]

You're also saving post tax money. So it's basically the equivalent of saving like $1300 a month.

[B]

And what you want to look for is, I'm not saying go out and buy a deal because at some point you're going to move out of this property, right. And then you're going to have to rent it out. But when you're doing your research, what you want to be able to do is factor in rent growth over time. So what you want to know is, if I have to move out of it tomorrow, is it going to cash flow? No, probably not. Okay, so you need to understand, can I afford to carry this property if things go south and I don't live there for long enough for rents to cover, don't put yourself in a terrible financial situation because we don't know, you don't know what the future is going to hold. So if you're buying a property, let's say, and then life happens and you have to move and you have to go rent somewhere and you want to rent this property out, can you afford to cover that property if you have to rent out both units? In other words, if the rent from both units doesn't cover the mortgage, if you're not living in the property, can you cover the difference long term to hold that property? That's how you protect yourself is just you want to be able to make sure that you can carry that in the worst case scenario. But when you're shopping for these properties, what you want to do is figure out with went growth, how long is it going to take you to get to a point where you're not going to have to cover anymore. So let's say you buy a property today and if you had to rent out both units, you would have to come out of Pocket 3 or $400 a month. But if rent growth is going to improve year over year, maybe in two years or three years, that $300 is absorbed by rent growth and now it's a break even if you have to move out or now you're cash flowing. So you have to look at what is rent growth in that area of town or in that market that you're looking for and how long would you have to carry that mortgage if you weren't going to live in that property and you had to move out right away. So you're just preparing to protect yourself if things don't go perfectly.

[A]

All right, we got to take one more quick break, but after this we're going to talk about ways investors can make their house hacks even more efficient and some different flavors of house hack as Henry has alluded to. We'll be right back.

[C]

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[C]

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[B]

Foreign.

[A]

Welcome back to the BiggerPockets podcast. David Henry here talking about house hacking. Henry, you have sort of opened up the definition of house hacking. You're broadening our horizons here. It's not just small multifamily, you said. It's any way you can use your primary residence to improve your financial situation. So like what are some other ways? I think the bread and butter classic table stakes is a two to four unit. You live in one, you rent out the others. What are the other things that you think work? And do some of them work better, I guess than the standard approach?

[B]

Yeah, I mean I think there's going to be plenty of people listening to this that are like, well I get it guys, but I already have my primary residence and It's a single family, so I'm stuck. That's not true. You can still monetize, Right? And so for the people who are in that boat, ways that you can monetize your primary residence. Now, mind you, this is going to require some level of uncomfortability. Wealth is not built in your comfort zone. If you have a single family and you want to monetize it, you can. But you're going to have to sacrifice some level of comfortability. The more uncomfortable you're willing to get, the more profitable you're going to be. So let's just keep that in mind. So obviously there's the Craig Kerlop just rent out rooms, right? Dude was living in his living room with a curtain up and renting out all the bedrooms. Super uncomfortable.

[A]

But I will say there's a way to do that one with where you're not living on a couch. Like you could just buy a four bedroom house and have a bedroom. Right? Like that is a format of living. I don't know about you, I lived in for 10 years with a roommate. You know, like that's just having a roommate. You're just the landlord for your roommate.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

That's not that weird.

[B]

I lived in the master bedroom. I had my own bedroom, bathroom. We rented out the other two bedrooms. I had roommates, we shared the kitchen. It was fine. Like it's just normal having a roommate. So yes, right. You can do that and have roommates. You can use Airbnb and short term rent a room so that you don't have somebody living there all the time. You can do something a little even more creative. And if you've got like a cool space in your house, maybe you've got a office space that's super cool or maybe you can curate a cool space. You can use apps like Peer Space to rent rooms out by the hour for people to come and record content or film commercials. Another thing you can rent out amenities you have. If you have a pool, you can use apps like swimpli to rent out your pool to people who want to come and use your pool by the hour.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

You can also use apps like Neighbor where you can rent out space in your garage or a shed or your driveway, but people just store stuff there and you can make money doing that. If you've got land or yard space, you can use an app called Sniff Spot, which is basically people renting private dog parks. There are options for you. All of these are things that exist and if they exist, that means there's people that are using them and making money. So I would encourage you to just do a little bit of research and figure out what are people paying for. Do you have an amenity that somebody might pay to rent or use? And there's probably a platform or an app that will allow you to bridge the gap between the people looking for those amenities and then you being the person that has that amenity. The other house hacking method is, I think, the one that you're doing, which is the Live in Flip, which is super financially beneficial. So you could go buy a Property with an FHA 203K or one of these other loan products we talked about in the previous segment. You could buy the property, you could fix it up, and then you could sell the property and move out of it and do it again. The cool part about it is if you live there for two years, then when you sell that property, you don't have to pay the capital gains taxes and you can literally pocket that money and go and do your next one or go and buy another multifamily. The Live in Flip, I think, is the house hack people don't really talk about.

[A]

I will say I'm doing it where we're going to renovate the house and add equity, but I don't think we're going to sell it after two years. Like, my wife and I are just at a point in our lives where we just probably are going to stay here. But like, we bought with that intention. And I think if you are willing to sell and move every two years, which is again, a level of discomfort, for sure, man, you can make a lot of money. Mindy Jensen, the host of the BP Money show, has been doing this for like 20 years. That's all she does. She doesn't even really own rental properties. She just does that over and over and makes tons of money doing it.

[B]

Yeah, or think about it from the perspective of like, a lot of people have aspirations to own a big beautiful home and a lot of people probably can't quite figure out how to get there from maybe the spot that they're in. Maybe they don't make enough money in their day job to afford that big beautiful home that they want. And they'd have to get a lot of raises and promotions before they get there. The Live in Flip method is a way that you could get there because let's say you bought a house under undervalued, you do the FHA 203k, you get a loan, you fix it up, and then you sell it to the point where you're making 100, 200, $300,000 of profit because you're going to live in it for a couple of years. It's going to appreciate on top of the fact that you bought it undervalued. And so now you sell that property, you got a couple hundred thousand dollars that you can put down on that dream home.

[A]

It's basically getting the benefit of a 1031 for your primary residence without all the, the pain in the ass, anxiety inducing things of a 1031.

[B]

Yeah, you could do a live in flip, live there for two to three years, sell that bad boy and get to your dream home a lot faster.

[A]

All right, we do have to get out of here in just a minute, Henry. But before we go, I want your one minute rant to people who say that this is too uncomfortable. You just talked about this but like what is your response to that?

[B]

Why are you here? Most people are here because they're looking for a way to, to build some level of wealth. Wealth isn't built in your comfort zone. You gonna have to get uncomfortable at some point. Dave has rental properties and has done real estate deals that were probably put him in a position where he felt a little uncomfortable.

[A]

I lived in my friend's grandma's basement for three years.

[B]

That uncomfortability has led him to wealth building. I have done things that were uncomfortable but that uncomfortability has led to wealth building. If you think you're going to achieve wealth or financial freedom without getting uncomfortable, I've got bad news for you. You're probably not going to get there. Now I'm not saying you've got to get so uncomfortable that you're not going to enjoy your life. I've enjoyed my wealth building process but it's required me to get uncomfortable. There's a lie. You've got to figure out where that line is for you, where your line of uncomfortability is and where that is you can start to build some wealth. When we went to first house hack, I told you I bought a, I bought a 32 and then I had a 11 ADU. I tried to get my wife to have us live in the one bedroom so that we could rent the three bedroom because we would be able to save more money because we'd bring in more money that way. That was too much and that was too uncomfortable for her and she said that was the line. Fine, I'm not going to live in the one bedroom. We're going to have to live in the three two which Means we'll build wealth a little more slowly. That's what we did. We had to figure out where that line of uncomfortability is versus profit.

[A]

I love this. I get to be the optimist here. I get to give the good news. I feel like I'm always reminding people about risk and all this kind of stuff, but Henry is right. There is some level of discomfort in this. But the good news is it's really not that. It's not that bad grand scheme of things at all. It's really like. I think it's pretty dramatic how, how people react to house hacking. They're like, oh my God, I have to share a wall. It's like, of course you do. Like, have you never lived in an apartment? Like, you've never had a roommate?

[B]

I don't know if you know this, but that wall's not see through.

[A]

Exactly. You can close the door if you want to like it. It's totally up to you. So I just think, like, man on the spectrum of discomfort to opportunity, house hacking is like truly the best. Like, I still think even though there's like this little bit of discomfort, the upside is so big, it's just like, I. I think it's so overblown that this is hard to do. It's not. It's a gift. Like, the fact that you can do this, the fact that you can buy a four unit putting 3.5% down with fixed rate debt is one of the best investments in the world. Like, it truly is. Like, other countries don't have that. This is incredible. You should go do it.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

All right, I'm sweating now. I'm crying. I need to go.

[B]

I like Dave Rants. Dave Rants are my new favorite thing.

[A]

I know. All right, well, thank you for being here, Henry. Thank you all so much for listening to this. I think that this was a lot of fun. As you can tell, we're both. Both really passionate about this. Genuinely think it's a great option. If you like this show, please give us a comment, share it with a friend who needs to hear this. We would really appreciate that as well. Henry, good seeing you, man.

[B]

You as well.

[A]

And thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time. Thank you all for listening to the Biggerpockets real estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian Kay. Copywriting is by Calico. Content and editing is by Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. the content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk, so use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose, and remember, past performance is not indicative of future results. BiggerPockets LLC disclaims all liability for direct, indirect, consequential or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast. Hey everyone, my favorite event of the year is almost here, the Bigger Pockets Conference, and I'm here with some exciting news that we just added two new sessions that you do not want to miss. First, we have Doug Bryan, super bowl champion turned real estate strategist who's going to share his playbook that he used after 2008 to scale to 17,000 single family units. And we have Andy Gill, full time investor and tech pro who's going to share the exact AI prompts he uses to save hours on contracts, deal analysis and operations. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. The next wave of opportunity in real estate is already forming and I believe that the investors who get ahead won't be the luckiest. They're going to be the ones who are the most prepared. That's why I want to see you at bpcon with over 40 sessions packed with real tactics for today's market. You'll leave ready to act. But the real magic? It happens in the hallways, connecting with other investors, swapping ideas and building relationships that last long after Vegas. October 5th is right around the corner. So if you've been on the fence, now is the time to get your ticket. You can grab [e-mail] Vegas that's biggerpockets.com Vegas.