House Hacking Calculator

House hacking is one of the few strategies that lets a first-time buyer use FHA financing on an income-producing property — reducing or eliminating out-of-pocket housing costs from month one. The math is straightforward on paper: buy a duplex, triplex, or fourplex, live in one unit, and let tenants pay your mortgage. In practice, the strategy requires careful modeling of effective housing cost, occupancy risk, and exit strategy. The National Association of Realtors' 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports that the median first-time buyer down payment was 8% — but FHA loans on owner-occupied multi-units go as low as 3.5%. That leverage advantage, combined with rental income offset, can cut effective monthly housing costs by 40% to 70% in the right market. This calculator shows your actual monthly out-of-pocket cost after tenant income, the coverage percentage, and how the numbers change if you move out and convert to a full rental.

This house hacking calculator estimates effective monthly housing cost for an owner-occupant in a multi-unit property. Enter the purchase price, down payment, interest rate, loan term, property tax rate, insurance cost, estimated maintenance, number of rentable units, rent per unit, and vacancy rate. The calculator returns total monthly housing expenses, projected rental income from non-owner units, effective monthly cost after offset, cost coverage percentage, and the projected full-rental cash flow if you move out after the required owner-occupancy period.