House hacking is when an owner lives in their property and rents out other parts of the property. Ultimately, the tenants are the ones paying the monthly mortgage payment while the owner lives rent-free.
The most powerful thing in real estate is leveraging other people’s money. Therefore, for a lender to approve you for real estate financing, you need to be as creditworthy as much as you can.
I always recommend new investors to build a relationship with a local bank or a credit union. A banker at a local bank can sometimes have more influence over your loan than a banker at a “big name” bank.
Study your local real estate market and look for areas with good house hack opportunities: research property values, rental income, and the kind of tenants in your market.
Finding real estate deals is the hardest part of real estate investing. Hence, you need to create a process that leads to potential deals, such as finding absentee owners.