Is House Hacking viable when prices are sky-high?

[Arithen]

It's incredibly inspirational to see some of the members here, or people my age (33) or younger, successfully buying a 2-4 unit property and living without housing costs out of pocket. I read their posts and watch their videos about how they purchased one of these properties for $200k-$400k with 5% down and their renters pay off the mortgage and then some.

I don't doubt that this strategy is viable, but I'm not certain it's as accessible everywhere. Perhaps I'm not as familiar with real estate and might need some more guidance.

I live in a particularly expensive part of Canada (even more so due to the recent housing cost increases), where the lower end of multifamily homes are typically around $800k, and more reasonable ones where rent could cover the costs are around $1.1m-$1.4m. Any property above $500k requires a 10% down payment, and anything above $1m requires a 20% downpayment. If I compare the average rent within the neighborhoods these properties are in, the rent for all units doesn't cover the full cost of the mortgage.

I'm not certain if this strategy works well in my location, or if I'm missing a step where it would be applicable.

Is House Hacking viable in this kind of situation?

 

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[Vadim26]

Fellow Canada resident here, and curious to see answers.

You mentioned sky-high property prices, so I am guessing you are also from Vancouver? lol

 

[biophase]

It's incredibly inspirational to see some of the members here, or people my age (33) or younger, successfully buying a 2-4 unit property and living without housing costs out of pocket. I read their posts and watch their videos about how they purchased one of these properties for $200k-$400k with 5% down and their renters pay off the mortgage and then some.

I don't doubt that this strategy is viable, but I'm not certain it's as accessible everywhere. Perhaps I'm not as familiar with real estate and might need some more guidance.

I live in a particularly expensive part of Canada (even more so due to the recent housing cost increases), where the lower end of multifamily homes are typically around $800k, and more reasonable ones where rent could cover the costs are around $1.1m-$1.4m. Any property above $500k requires a 10% down payment, and anything above $1m requires a 20% downpayment. If I compare the average rent within the neighborhoods these properties are in, the rent for all units doesn't cover the full cost of the mortgage.

I'm not certain if this strategy works well in my location, or if I'm missing a step where it would be applicable.

Is House Hacking viable in this kind of situation?

It's basically simple math. So the property you are looking at either works or it doesn't based on your down payment and interest rate. If you did the math and rents don't cover the payments, then it doesn't work.

You can also look into buying and fixing one unit at a time, increasing rent and then repeating for all units.

What about buying a house and renting out the rooms separately?