House Hacking in 2026 in Texas or North Carolina

[Fabio Cattolico]

Hey everybody,

My wife and I live in NYC and are likely planning on moving in about a year or so. At that time we'll have about 70-80k saved up. We have family in Texas (San Antonio) and lived there before. My wife is really against moving back to San Antonio but loves Austin, but also would be open to smaller places around Austin and Dallas. She's also open to move to North Carolina and potentially Georgia. We would love to house hack a duplex that makes sense from a numbers perspective and is not in a bad area of town. It doesn't have to be an A+ neighborhood, but should feel comfortable walking around the neighborhood by yourself. I'm struggling to figure out what to do. Duplex inventory is scarce and usually in bad/hideous areas and the numbers don't look great. I'd be happy with doing some cosmetic work (if it brought up the value) but even that seems to be tricky in Austin since I see properties that are renovated selling for about the same as some unrenovated ones here and there. I'd also be happy with a single family and ADU but we don't want to spend much more than around 400K. Sometimes I think it would be best to invest out of state to find a cash flowing property. What have you done as Texas investors if you bought recently (after 2024). With these interest rates and property values it almost seems hopeless to make anything a good investment

[Victor Patel]

I think the biggest mistake would be forcing a duplex just because the original goal was to house hack one.

At a $400K-ish price point, especially in Austin, you may be trying to make the property fit the strategy instead of finding the best property available. If duplex inventory is limited, the neighborhoods are questionable, and the rents don’t support the price, I wouldn’t stretch the numbers just to say you bought a duplex.

I’d probably work backwards from your real goals:

1. Buy in an area you and your wife actually want to live in.
2. Keep the monthly payment comfortable.
3. Look for some way to offset the payment—duplex, ADU, garage apartment, separate entrance, extra bedroom, etc.
4. Make sure the property still makes sense as a rental after you eventually move out.

That last part is important. A house hack doesn’t necessarily have to cash flow beautifully on day one. If living there saves you $1,000–$1,500/month compared with renting something similar, that savings is part of the return too.

I also wouldn’t underestimate the value of your $70K–$80K liquidity. You don’t necessarily need to deploy all of it into the down payment. Keeping reserves gives you flexibility for repairs, renovations, or another investment later.

And if the numbers truly don’t work in the city where you want to live, there’s nothing wrong with separating the two decisions: buy your primary residence where you actually want to live and buy the investment property somewhere else where the numbers make sense.

The deal has to work. The strategy doesn’t have to look exactly like the one you originally pictured.