What Is House Hacking?

House hacking is a simple but powerful strategy for building wealth and learning about real estate investing while you live in your home. At its core, it means you live in part of a property while renting out the other part (or even just a room) to cover your expenses. The rent your tenants pay helps offset your mortgage, taxes, and insurance - sometimes even allowing you to live for free.

It’s a strategy used by countless investors, including Brandon Turner and David Greene, who were made household names in the investing world during their time on BiggerPockets. Both started with house hacking early in their journeys and built from there.

What Property Management Really Is (and Why It Matters)

Property management is everything that happens after you buy a rental property. It’s advertising the home, screening tenants, collecting rent, coordinating repairs, handling emergencies, inspecting the property, renewing leases, paying bills, and keeping records, and all the things in between. In short - it’s the work that turns a house into a functioning business.

And it matters more than most new investors realize. How you manage your rentals determines not only their long-term success, but also their year-to-year performance. A property that’s poorly managed won’t cash flow the way you expected, and over time it won’t build wealth the way you hoped.

Why Buying Right Matters

In real estate investing, success or failure usually happens the day you buy the property. If you buy wrong - the wrong location, the wrong house, or without clear standards - you set yourself up for headaches and disappointment. But if you buy right, you lay the foundation for a rental that performs well for years to come.

Early in my investing journey, I learned this lesson firsthand. What kept me focused was creating something I call a “buy box” - the non-negotiables that every property had to meet before I’d pull the trigger. Over the years, the buy box has evolved depending on the type of rental we were pursuing, but having one has always been critical to my success.

Why Rental Property Is More Than Just a Side Hustle

For many people, buying rental property sounds intimidating or like something only “big investors” do. The truth is, owning a rental property can be one of the smartest ways to build wealth over time - and the benefits go far beyond monthly rent checks. From cash flow to tax savings, real estate gives everyday people powerful tools to keep more of what they earn while building long-term security.