The RentHack Blog

The house hacker's
guide to smarter deals

Practical guides, real deal walkthroughs, and market insights — written for first-time multifamily buyers who want to make confident offers.

🏠 House Hacking How-Tos 📊 Deal Analysis Walkthroughs 🏘️ Multifamily Investing Basics 📈 Market & Financing News
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First posts coming soon

We're writing guides that cut through the noise — real numbers, real deals, no fluff. Drop your email and we'll let you know when they're live.

What's coming

House Hacking

How to analyze a duplex in 5 minutes

A step-by-step walkthrough of the exact numbers you need — purchase price, rents, expenses — and how to know if a deal actually pencils out.

Investing Basics

What is DSCR and why lenders care so much?

Debt Service Coverage Ratio explained in plain English — what it means, what counts as "good," and how it affects what you can borrow.

Deal Walkthrough

We analyzed 10 duplexes. Here's what we found.

A real look at how metrics like cap rate, cash-on-cash, and IRR varied across 10 properties in different markets — and what separated the deals from the duds.

Financing

FHA vs Conventional for a house hack — which is better?

The down payment, PMI, and loan limit tradeoffs between FHA and conventional loans when you're buying a 2–4 unit property to live in.

Market News

How rising rates changed the duplex market in 2025

What higher interest rates did to cap rates, asking prices, and cash flow across the most popular house hack markets — and where opportunity still exists.

House Hacking

The "effective mortgage" — the only number that matters

Why your actual monthly housing cost after rental income is the number to optimize — and how to model it before you make an offer.