The House Hacking Strategy: How to Use Your Home to Achieve Financial Freedom (Financial Freedom, 3) Paperback – October 17, 2019

This book contains a ton of value, with in-depth procedures and tools needed to get into your first and second house hack. Craig provides you with the 411 on the essentials for house hacking, and everything you need to know about it is in this book. Through every chapter, you just get more and more knowledgeable about house hacking. Craig is definitely a pro! In this book, you will learn how ways on how to finance your first house hack, different varieties of house hacking, tools and strategies to get tenants, monitoring your expenses, applications Craig uses and recommends, real life house hackers and their stories at the end of each chapter, and a checklist to keep you consistent and prepared, and much more! I love this book and I will definitely read it again. I am 100% more confident to house hack thanks to Craig and his book! Any fears, worries, and doubt have been completely eliminated after finishing the House Hacking Strategy. This is a MUST buy!!!! You won't regret it. THANK YOU CRAIG AND BIGGER POCKETS!

Craig writes a very practical, easy, and actionable book on a method that anyone can do no matter your age. He takes into detail every step of his journey and reveals how to not face the same things he did.I was able to get into my first househack with this book and it is a constant read for anyone considering house hacking.House hacking in my opinion is the most easiest way to get into real estate investing. Low cost of down payment entry and you can continuously scale up every year. House hacking by far beats being a renter for sure even in times of high inflation and high interest rates.

I wish I had read Craig's book earlier! Craig shows how to buy a home and manage tenants using low money down.While there is additional work to home-ownership vs. renting including managing tenants, there is also reduced financial burden knowing that housemates can help you pay the mortgage. Repeating this process a few times can set you up for financial success. Craig shows how to do this; this is not a gimmick.I've seen a few friends "house hack" over the past 10 years as well as lived as a "boarder" (i.e. rented-a-room) in other's homes before knowing the term "House Hack"... it took a lot of evidence, experience, and courage to purchase my first property and rent rooms to housemates; however, the experience so far has been excellent (including its share of frustrations)! My eyes are opened and am already eagerly planning my 2nd house hack - this time, following Craig's recommendations from the get-go.To get a quick understanding of "House Hacking", I suggest everyone to quickly review his Instagram profile (public figure, business-related only posts) to quickly see many summary examples: instagram thefiguy.Then go on to listen to podcasts and read his book.And listen to two podcasts:BiggerPockets Money Podcast 95: The House Hacking Strategy with Craig CurelopBiggerPockets Podcast 252: House Hacking (Your First Deal) & Life Hacking with Craig Curelop

Pro’s: Real life examples, albeit very simple calculations that don’t take into effect cost of living increases, tax burden, or closing costs. Very uplifting & cheerleader voice. Craig sounds like a hardworking, earnest & kind person who wrote this book to help others achieve financial freedom. You go, Craig!Con’s: I live/work in LA & Craig has stipulated that house hacking is VERY tough in LA, SF & NY. As an active first time home buyer who is a SoCal native, my observations are: 1) LA is very strict with AirBnB’s & the cap on the # of occupancy days will hurt your return ratios 2) Lending standards in the midst of COVID-19 have tightened & some people such as “Jessica” who have $95k in student debt would have a hard time getting approved due to her debt-to-income ratio (“Jessica”, congrats on your house hack: where do you live so that we can get out of this rat race!) 3) Inventory levels remain low in LA & competition is stiff. It’s like a bunch of sharks circling a handful of goldfish. Sure, you can house hack in the Valley or in gentrifying downtown LA neighborhoods, but be mindful of the types of tenants you’d attract in those areas (I lived in a house hack in Van Nuys & lemme tell YOU the kind of craziness that went down in that house) & possibly a long commute (10 miles took 50-60 min to West LA). Also, you probably won’t have your offer accepted with only a 3-5% down. There are too many flippers & investors with *bigger pockets* than you. Maybe you can try Rochester, NY! 😂 4) Craig uses many examples of house hacks with basements. Great! Except in California we don’t have basements because of all the earthquakes. I’d love to turn a basement into 2 rooms, but I’d have better luck purchasing a tiny home to park in the backyard where I won’t have walls caving in on me. 5) Whenever the people in the book rehab a property, Craig lists their appreciation as part of the return on investment & net worth. Unless you have a buyer handing you a check for that higher appraisal number, I wouldn’t count it as your realized return especially in this COVID-19 environment. Remember: If you can’t spend it, it’s not yours.That said, I really liked how upbeat this book was & how all the sample people profiled were so Pollyanna that they “house hack so that they can spend more time with their kids & loved ones”. Let’s be frank in the midst of COVID-19 that parents are losing their minds with their kids near them 24/7 & the rest of us childless people just like having the extra $$ to go along with our lack of parental responsibilities & ability to sleep in on weekends. No shame.Thanks for all the tips Craig. I can definitely see a Part 2 version of this book.