Live in one part of the property, rent the rest, and let the tenants carry most of the mortgage. This calculator shows what house hacking actually does to your monthly housing cost — and what you walk away with when you sell.
Free, no signup needed. Create a free account only if you want to save it, export the PDF, or share it.Most mortgage calculators answer one question: what is the payment? A house hack has a different question underneath it — what does housing actually cost you once a tenant is paying part of it, and how much wealth does that arrangement build while you live there.
This calculator runs both. It takes your purchase price, loan terms, taxes, insurance, and the rent from the units or rooms you are not occupying, then reports your out-of-pocket cost to live there, your cash flow once you move out, and the equity you built along the way — broken into loan paydown, appreciation, and the rent you avoided paying a landlord.
Payment minus the rent your units produce. This is the number that tells you whether you are living cheaper than renting — and by how much per month.
Every month you occupy the property, you are not writing a rent check. That savings is real return and most calculators ignore it entirely.
Loan paydown plus appreciation minus selling costs, with an annualized return percentage so you can compare it to an index fund honestly.
A full hold-period table — cash flow, equity, and cumulative return each year, so you can see when the property flips from cost to income.
Purchase price, down payment, rate, term, plus monthly taxes, insurance, and HOA. If you are using FHA at 3.5% down, PMI is handled for you.
Tell it how many units or rooms exist and mark the one you will occupy. Fill in current rent if the property is already leased, or market rent if it is not — either one works.
Your cost to live, your savings versus renting, and the derivation line under each number so you can trace it back to the field that produced it.
The True Equity waterfall shows what actually lands in your pocket at sale, with an annualized return next to the dollars.
I will email your house hack breakdown plus the specific Ankeny-to-Ames neighborhoods where duplexes and rentable single-family layouts still work at today's rates.
A house hack is buying a property you live in while renting out part of it — the other side of a duplex, a finished basement unit, or spare bedrooms. Because you occupy it, you qualify for owner-occupied financing like FHA at 3.5% down or conventional at 5%, instead of the 20-25% an investor would need.
FHA allows 3.5% down on a one to four unit property you occupy, and conventional owner-occupied options start around 5%. On a $300,000 duplex that is roughly $10,500 to $15,000 down, plus closing costs. Iowa also has first-time buyer down payment assistance programs that can stack with this — your lender will confirm what you qualify for.
Owner-occupancy requirements on FHA and most conventional loans run one year. After that you can move out, rent the unit you were living in, and repeat the process on the next property.
Often, yes. Lenders will typically count a portion of documented or appraiser-estimated rent from the other units toward your qualifying income, which can raise the price you are approved for. The exact percentage varies by loan product — ask your lender to run it both ways.
Sometimes. The right comparison is not zero — it is what you would otherwise pay in rent. If you are paying $940 to live somewhere that would cost $1,300 to rent, you are ahead by $360 a month before counting loan paydown and appreciation. The calculator shows all three so you can judge it honestly.
The unit you occupied becomes rentable, so the property usually flips to positive cash flow. The Year-by-Year tab shows exactly which year that happens based on your inputs.