Free calculator
House hacking calculator
Living in one unit or room and renting out the rest? Enter your total monthly ownership cost and the rent from each rented space to see what you effectively pay to live there.
The short answer
Last updated: July 2026
House hacking means living in part of a property you own while renting out the rest. Effective housing cost = total monthly ownership cost − rent collected. If your mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities total $2,600 and your tenants pay $2,400, you effectively pay $200 a month to live there.
After the estimate:
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What do you really pay to live there?
Enter your total monthly ownership cost and the rent from each unit or room you rent out. The tool shows your effective housing cost and how much of the bill your tenants cover.
Total monthly ownership cost
$
Mortgage payment (PITI) plus utilities and other costs you pay as the owner.
Rented units or rooms
$
$
Input-driven result
Your inputs
Formula
Result below
Effective monthly housing cost
$200
$2,600 ownership cost − $2,400 rent collected.
Rent collected
$2,400
Across 2 rented units/rooms.
Share of housing cost covered
92%
Rent collected ÷ total ownership cost.
Monthly housing offset
Ownership cost
$2,600
Rent collected
$2,400
Your remaining cost
$200
Estimate based on your inputs. Not a promise of results.
Estimate only. This assumes every unit is rented and paying — it doesn't model vacancy, repairs, turnover, or taxes on the rental income. Lending, zoning, and occupancy rules for owner-occupied rentals vary by place.
How it works
How this tool works.
House hacking is the classic first move in rental real estate: buy a small multifamily or a house with spare rooms, live in one part, and let rent from the rest carry the mortgage. The appeal is simple — your biggest monthly expense shrinks, sometimes to zero, while you learn landlording with the property you live in.
This calculator shows what that looks like with your numbers. Enter everything you pay monthly as the owner — mortgage principal and interest, taxes, insurance, and the utilities you cover — then add a row for each unit or room you rent out. The tool nets the rent against the cost and shows your effective monthly housing cost and the percentage your tenants cover. It’s a snapshot of a fully rented month, built entirely from your inputs.
Make the result useful
Model the owner-occupied month honestly
House hacking compares total monthly ownership cost with rent from the spaces you rent. Include mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities you pay, and any other recurring owner cost.
A fully rented month is not an annual result. Test vacancies, repairs, roommate turnover, and local rules before treating the offset as guaranteed.
Does rent cover all ownership risk?
No. It is only one month’s modeled income against costs.
Questions landlords ask
Questions about this tool and its limits.
Built by a landlord who's done every one of these jobs by hand.
Aptoria was built by an owner-operator managing a Brooklyn portfolio — the 11pm calls, the awkward rent texts, the April receipt-pile — not by a software team guessing at the problem.
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