Calculators › House Hack Calculator
Getting startedHouse Hack Calculator
By Cedrick Reese, Property Rental Calculator
Free calculator that shows your real house-hacking housing cost after tenant rent, updated instantly as you type.
Your property
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Owner-occupied loans often allow a low down payment.
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yrs
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Do not include your own unit.
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Utilities or maintenance you cover.
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Enter a purchase price and term to see results.
Results
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Your net housing cost–
Rent coverage–
Break-even rent–
Monthly PITI–
vs renting elsewhere–
Estimate only. Owner-occupied loan terms and local costs vary. Not financial advice.
How to use this calculator
Enter your purchase price, financing, taxes, insurance, and the rent from the other units or rooms. The tool shows your net housing cost, how much of the payment tenants cover, and the break-even rent, updating as you type.
How house hacking works
You buy a small multi-unit or a home with rentable rooms, live in part of it, and rent the rest. Because owner-occupied financing usually allows a much lower down payment than an investment loan, house hacking is a common first step into real estate. The tenants' rent offsets your mortgage, so your out-of-pocket housing cost drops, sometimes to nothing.
A worked example
Buy a $400,000 triplex with 5% down at 7% over 30 years. With about $5,000 in annual taxes and $1,500 in insurance, your PITI runs roughly $3,070 a month. Add $200 of utilities you cover and your outlay is about $3,270. If the two other units bring in $2,400, your net housing cost is about $870 a month, and the tenants cover roughly 73% of the payment. If renting a comparable place would cost you $1,800, you are saving around $930 every month.
Common questions
How is this different from a rental calculator?
A rental calculator measures investor profit on a property you do not live in. This measures your personal housing cost after tenants, because you occupy one unit. The goal here is a low or negative net cost, not a cash-flow return.
Do I still screen tenants?
Absolutely. You will be living alongside them, so careful tenant screening matters even more than usual.
What down payment do owner-occupied loans need?
Often far less than an investment loan. Depending on the program and your qualification, it can range from a few percent up to the low teens. Use the figure your lender quotes.
What counts as an expense here?
Only the recurring monthly costs you actually pay: any utilities, shared maintenance, or HOA you cover. The mortgage, taxes, and insurance are already in the PITI figure.
How this is built and kept current
This calculator was built by Cedrick Reese, a web developer, using the standard PITI calculation lenders quote on owner-occupied financing: mortgage principal and interest plus taxes and insurance, plus any expenses you cover, minus the rent your tenants pay. That's the same math behind evaluating any house hack, and it's built so the outlay side lines up with what a mortgage lender would actually quote you. If typical owner-occupied loan terms or how PITI is figured shifts, this tool gets rechecked against current practice.