House hacking one Oh one

[Chris Thomas]

My name is Chris Thomas I’m brand new here to BPP and I am not the traditional adult. My mom passed away and left me with a large chunk of change most of which is in mutual funds the other half is in a retirement fund growing very slowly. I will be working full time after deciding to hold off on finishing college.I currently reside in Iowa City, Iowa and either plan on buyin my first property here or in my home town of Des Moines, Iowa. My goal for 2020 is that by the time my lease is up at this apt in late july that I can find a nice home lookin at about 3-4 bed and 3 Ba to house hack. I just wanted to network because I just recently got super interested in all of this talk about house hacking and brrrr like two weeks ago and have been lookin for the best method to kick start my drive on this road to financial freedom. 

I'm looking at taking out an fha loan and just wanted tips and ideas on best ways to find roomates? in a single family home is it weird staying in one room and sharing the entire house with other people? And on top of that how do you split up the utilities? Do you buy extra fridges or split space in the refrigerator for other peoples groceries? Your experiences and ROI's? the time it took to see cashflow or if you never saw any? the pros and cons, also if anyone recommends building a small kitchen in the basement of a single family home to increase the value? Just the smaller things that people don't really talk about I guess is what I'm most curious about. Any info helps really. I'm doing all the research I can before my lease is up so I can have my ducks in a row and also am close with a realtor in the area.

This is Chris Thomas and thanks to all of you guys here at Bigger Pockets

[Basit Siddiqi]

@Chris Thomas

I am sorry to hear of your mom's passing. I hope everything is well.

You may get a lot of solicited messages as a result of you posting that you have acquired a large chunk of change.

Regarding house-hacking. I think it is a great way to reduce one of your largest monthly expenses, rent if not live rent free.

You may be eligible for tax deductions that you were not entitled to before. 
Furthermore, it provides you training wheels of a full-time landlord.

You may want to see if you can do a conventional mortgage at 5% down instead of an FHA. This will allow you to avoid paying PMI throughout the life of the mortgage.