Pittsburgh House Hacking

[JY Diei]

Hello! I will be moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a few months and would love to house hack! I was wondering if Pittsburgh would be a good place to house hack and start my real estate portfolio. I would love to hear about anyones’ experiences and speak with a realtor or mentor at any time!

Thanks,

Jean-Yves Diei

[Jeremy Taggart]

@JY Diei I've been doing it the last 5 years here. Try to do one every year or so to take advantage of the good financing if you move in. It's getting tougher to live for free in the nicer areas right around the city doing a traditional multi unit house hack, but still doable. Typically the places that need some cosmetic work/are under rented are where you will get the best overall returns nowadays. The turnkey stuff tends to get bid up by people not concerned with the numbers but just want to live in a nicer neighborhood for cheaper than renting there. 

If cash flow is your main goal you can live in a little more low income area to cover or exceed your mortgage but it likely won't be one of the most desired neighborhoods or your top pick of where you could live. Really depends on what your main priorities are and what you are going for. I tend to favor using the FHA on a higher priced nicer area though since you can only have one of those at a time. Utilitze it to get into a higher end neighborhood for little out of pocket compared to having to put 20-25% down if you were to buy it as an investment property.