The Mindset for Househacking Long Term

Lots of people start househacking with the idea that they'll do it year in and year out, few do. 

There are a few reasons here, some technical but most mindset related. 

For the technical side the biggest issues of course pop up with financing and not planning out your strategy to get to multiple househacks with a solid, experience houshack lender. The biggest issue I see is someone buys a duplex with an FHA loan and their next option to buy the next duplex is 15% down on a conventional loan so they just give up and buy a nice house for 5% down to settle down in. I'm not a lender but I'll share a few options I've seen work. The first duplex is bought on a 5% conventional loan (assuming you qualify for these, they're tough) and the second one is bought on a 3.5% down FHA. Another option that I've personally used is finding a duplex that BARELY passes the FHA inspection, doing a rehab on it and then refinancing so I can use the FHA loan again. This has allowed me to buy multiple duplexes with next to nothing down. I also purchased a single family house with a guest house that acted as a duplex but I was able to use the 5% down conventional loan to get that done.

None of this matters if you're not in the mindset to approach househacking over and over and over. Want to get in this mindset? 

Set big goals and have a big why.

When you have a goal that you're passionate about you'll do whatever you need to do to get there and househacking makes reaching a real estate goal or financial freedom a no brainer! Why would you not put next to nothing down to buy an income producing asset that gains value if your goals are to achieve financial freedom and build wealth. All you have to do is live in it and save money while doing it. 

I've certainly had some househack creep but I think that's ok as long as you can stay with it. My last few househacks have been nicer and not involved roommates where my first househack was a duplex with every available space rented out. I absolutely think you should maximize your opportunities, but I also think it's more important to stay with the process. Compare it to working out. You're better off if you go to the gym 3x a week and having a slow paced workout than going to the gym once a month and having the hardest workout of your life. That's the difference between househacking 5 times vs househacking once in an area you hate with 12 roommates because it was the greatest deal ever. 

Figure out how you can househack over a long time, one househack will change your life but it won't make you financially free. Five of them probably will!