About

About Jackson Krile

Central Iowa REALTOR®, house hacker, and the person behind House Hack Jack. Licensed in Iowa since 2018.

I am a residential and investment specialist with the Flanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center in Ames, and I work the Ankeny to Ames corridor and 30+ Central Iowa communities.

The short version: I grew up in West Des Moines, finished school at Iowa State, got licensed before I graduated, and bought my first house hack in Ames in 2020. My wife Kat and I have built a small portfolio the same way since, and I have been filming the whole thing on YouTube since 2021 - including the parts that went sideways.

That is not a marketing angle. It is the reason I am useful to the people I work with. When a first-time buyer asks whether the numbers on a duplex actually work, I am not reciting theory.

LicensedIowa, since 2018 · #S66867000
BrokerageFlanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center
Office1606 S Duff Ave Ste 100, Ames, IA
EducationIowa State University - Business Management & Entrepreneurship
FocusHouse hacking, first-time buyers, small investors, move-up sellers
MembershipsDMAAR & CIBR MLS
The Path Here

How I got into this

Growing up
West Des Moines, Valley High School. Central Iowa has always been home. I studied at Florida Keys Community College for a year and a half before coming back to Iowa and finishing at Iowa State University in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. West Des Moines to Ames and everywhere in between are my stomping grounds. While still a full-time student I interned with RE/MAX Lakes Realty in Okoboji, which is where the real estate part actually started.
2018
Got licensed at the end of 2018, about six months before graduating. Joined the Flanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center in Ames in early 2020, the same year I bought my first house hack.
2020
Bought my first house hack in Ames. I lived in it with roommates while they covered most of the mortgage, and that property is still a rental.
2021
My then girlfriend and now wife, Kat, joined the picture. We bought our first house hack together, and my second property, in her hometown of Ankeny. That is also the year I started filming the process.
2022
We loved where we lived, so we bought our third house hack directly across the street - which turned house hack #2 into rental #2.
Since
We started 2026 with four house hack properties and sold house hack #2 earlier this year, so today we own three full-time rentals, every one of them bought by house hacking. We would not have done it any other way, and it has been a blast. The full journey, with real numbers, is here.
How I Work

What you should expect from me

The Flanders Team runs on three words: proactive, relationship-driven, referable. In practice that means you hear from me before you have to chase me, I would rather give you an honest answer than an easy one, and I am building a business on referrals - which only works if the experience was actually good.

The team has completed 345+ transactions and $101M+ in volume since 2018, with 200+ 5-star team reviews across Zillow, Realtor.com, Google, and Facebook. Most of our business comes from repeat clients and referrals.

I will also tell you when a house is not worth it, when a deal does not pencil out, and when the right move is to wait. That costs me a commission sometimes. It is the whole reason people come back.

House Hack Jack

Why the YouTube channel exists

House Hack Jack started because the information I needed at 22 did not exist in a form I trusted. Everything was either national advice that ignored Iowa, or a highlight reel with no numbers.

So I publish the actual numbers on my own properties - purchase price, rents, what the updates cost, what I got wrong. If you want to see whether this strategy works in Central Iowa specifically, that is the fastest way to find out.

YouTube Instagram TikTok Facebook LinkedIn Zillow reviews
Where I Work

Ankeny · Ames · Johnston · Huxley · Polk City · Altoona · Bondurant · Grimes · Urbandale · Waukee · West Des Moines · Gilbert · Pleasant Hill · Norwalk · Indianola · Adel · Madrid · Slater · Cambridge · Boone · and 30+ Central Iowa communities

Want to talk it through?

Buying, selling, or just running numbers on something you saw. No pressure, and no obligation to do anything about it today.

Talk to Jackson See my house hack numbers Press & media kit