House Hacking a duplex (or small multi-family)

[Angie Castro]

I'm making this post because I feel like we should be educated and there is a lot of info out there about house-hacking and how you could use an FHA loan live in one unit and rent the rest of the units. This is a very solid strategy but we should talk about what it really looks like to do such a thing. In a market like Charlotte, NC majority of our multi-families (not a huge inventory) are rental properties. So naturally they will need some updating. Very few renovated or move-in ready multi-families come on market. Due to the need of repairs 90% of Multi-families will not take FHA loans. A lot of them will not appraise because. Inspections will not come clean and a buyer must have savings in hand for renovations. With that being said I would not say that house-hacking multi-families is an impossible goal. It's possible for sure but I wanted to shine some light into the hurdles of it so when you do decide to utilize such a strategy then you do so with the correct expectations. It's a tough process! You will need and EXPERIENCED agent to help you navigate through these issues. That's all.