Free calculator that shows what buying a small duplex with 3.5% down and renting out the other unit would cost you per month — often less than renting. Built by someone who went from living in a van to house-hacking a duplex.
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Maker
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Hey Product Hunt,
Ten-ish years ago I was living in a van, in an attempt to escape high rent on the west coast. Today I own a duplex, live in one unit and my rent pays most of the housing bill. The road between those two points was a lot of work and sacrifice, but I wish I had connected the dots sooner in life because the math to get to homeowner was easier and the journey shorter than I had guessed.
So I built the calculator for anyone in a similar place: of little means but looking to make some moves and gain the financial freedom to do what you want in life. The tool is simple: you put in a property price, your local rents, and your down payment, and it shows your effective housing cost: mortgage (minus the rent the other unit brings in).
In a bunch of Midwest metros that number comes out lower than renting a one-bedroom. That number changed my life.
It's completely free. There's also a down-payment budget tool that gives you an actual target date, a rent-vs-buy-vs-house-hack comparison, and a free PDF roadmap if you want the whole path laid out, and plenty of other stuff (the site is early on, I'm adding new content every week)!
Two caveats, because this corner of the internet is full of gurus: house hacking means being a landlord who lives next to their tenant. It is not all that passive, yet. It's like a real side job, at times. And in expensive metros the math usually doesn't work; the calculator will tell you that instead of pretending.
Happy to answer anything about the numbers, the tools, or the van years.
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ran a couple numbers from my area and it lined up way closer to reality than the rent vs buy spreadsheets i usually mess with. love that it assumes 3.5 percent down instead of defaulting to 20
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Maker
@elatanaslan That's exactly what I'm hoping to hear! Every calculator I found assumed 20% down, which is a mild nuisance, except when house hacking is probably better if you don't use 20%. Glad it lined up with your real numbers. If you don't mind me asking, what metro were you running? Always curious where the math actually pencils out.
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Ran my numbers through it and the duplex breakdown was way more honest than the spreadsheets I've been making. Love that the founder actually lived the van-to-vault path.
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Maker
@metehanhgei Thanks, Metehan! This genuinely made my morning. I built it around the costs that I actually incurred (like MIP) on my way from the back of my van to a duplex, so I try to base my assumptions off of my experience. If anything felt missing for your own numbers, I'd really like to know, I'm looking forward to continue to improve and refine that calculator and the other tools as well. Appreciate you giving it a real run!
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finally plugged in a duplex near me and was genuinely surprised how close it came to my current rent, the breakdown makes the math feel way less intimidating
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Maker
@bedriye370134 That is wonderful news, and thank you for sharing! Getting a real idea of what you're looking at when assessing your options is the whole point. That, and not having to pay or sign-up for it, is what we're trying to do differently.
ran a couple numbers from my area and it lined up way closer to reality than the rent vs buy spreadsheets i usually mess with. love that it assumes 3.5 percent down instead of defaulting to 20
@elatanaslan That's exactly what I'm hoping to hear! Every calculator I found assumed 20% down, which is a mild nuisance, except when house hacking is probably better if you don't use 20%. Glad it lined up with your real numbers. If you don't mind me asking, what metro were you running? Always curious where the math actually pencils out.
Ran my numbers through it and the duplex breakdown was way more honest than the spreadsheets I've been making. Love that the founder actually lived the van-to-vault path.
@metehanhgei Thanks, Metehan! This genuinely made my morning. I built it around the costs that I actually incurred (like MIP) on my way from the back of my van to a duplex, so I try to base my assumptions off of my experience. If anything felt missing for your own numbers, I'd really like to know, I'm looking forward to continue to improve and refine that calculator and the other tools as well. Appreciate you giving it a real run!
finally plugged in a duplex near me and was genuinely surprised how close it came to my current rent, the breakdown makes the math feel way less intimidating
@bedriye370134 That is wonderful news, and thank you for sharing! Getting a real idea of what you're looking at when assessing your options is the whole point. That, and not having to pay or sign-up for it, is what we're trying to do differently.