Does house hacking only work if you make profit or live free?

[Jordan Santley]

Hello!

My wife and I have around 22K saved up and we want to try to house hack.  We are both brand new to real estate investing.  We have a baby on the way so are mostly looking at multi-family homes.  The real estate marked in the Chattanooga/Cleveland TN area is crazy right now and everything is up by about 40%.  Obviously we would need to look for a great deal and that leads me to my question:  Is house hacking only worth doing if you make a profit or break even?  My wife thinks that even if we have to pay $300 out of our pockets for the mortgage, then it's still a good idea to do.  I know it would be good to have as a rental when we move out after a year or two, but we wouldn't have any more money but our savings to put towards another investment later if we weren't making a profit.  I appreciate any insight!