Can You Buy a House With No Money Down? 2026 Options
Can you buy a house with no money down? Two loan programs finance 100%: VA and USDA. What each requires, what the fees cost, and how assistance fills gaps.
The Van to Vault blog
House hacking, first homes, and the plain math behind them. Browse by category or start with the newest posts.
What is house hacking?
House hacking is buying a small multifamily property, living in one unit, and renting out the rest so tenant rent covers most of the mortgage. It is how I went from a van to a duplex, and it is what most of this blog is about.
Browse all posts by topic
House Hacking — all 55 articles
- 15 Units at $15/Hour Is a Lottery Ticket
- A Free DealCheck Alternative for House Hacking
- A Free FIRE Calculator That Actually Models Rental Income (ProjectionLab, Boldin, and OnTrajectory Alternative)
- A Free Mashvisor Alternative for First-Time House Hackers
- Best Rent Collection Apps for Small Landlords
- Buying a Duplex With Your Parents
- Can You Buy a House With No Money Down? 2026 Options
- Can you house hack with a family?
- Deal of the Week: Running an $85,500 Cleveland Double Through the Calculator
- Duplex or Single-Family Starter Home? The Numbers That Decide It
- Duplex Real Results: Q3 2026
- Fannie Mae’s 12-Month Landlord Experience Rule for Duplex Buyers
- Fed Rate Hike 2026: What It Means for Mortgage Rates and Buyers
- FHA vs. Conventional for House Hacking: Which Loan Gets You In for Less
- Free BRRRR Calculator: Run the Whole Cycle, No Account, No 5-Use Cap
- Free Rentometer Alternative: Comp Your Own Rent in 10 Minutes
- From Van to Duplex: How it Actually Happened
- House Hacking at Today’s Mortgage Rates: What Changed, and Where It Still Works
- House Hacking for Beginners: How to Start From Almost Nothing
- House Hacking Mistakes I Made (and What I’d Do Differently)
- House Hacking Strategies: Duplex vs. Rent-by-Room vs. ADU
- House hacking with an FHA loan: the 3.5%-down path I used
- How Do People Afford Houses?
- How Long Do You Have to Live in a House Hack?
- How Much House Can You Afford When You House Hack?
- How Much Money Do You Need to Buy a Duplex?
- How Much Money You Need to Start in Real Estate
- How Much My Tenants Actually Covered: Twelve Months of Rent Against the Mortgage
- How to Afford a House on One Income
- How to Buy a Duplex, Live in One Side, and Rent the Other
- How to Find a House Hack Property
- How to Use a House Hacking Calculator (Step by Step)
- Is House Hacking Still Worth It in 2026? The Math at Today’s Rates
- Living next to your tenants: what it’s actually like
- Multigenerational Living Is Rising, and the 2-4 Unit Home Was Built for It
- Rent by the Room or Rent the Whole Unit? How the Two House Hacks Differ
- Rent Increase Notice to Tenant: Rules, Template, and Math
- Self-Managing a Rental Property: What It Saves and Costs
- Short-Term vs. Long-Term Rental: What I Learned Running Both in the Same Duplex
- Should I Get a Tiny Home? Tiny Home vs. House Hacking
- Show your work: the duplex, year one
- Small Multifamily Investing: The 2-4 Unit Sweet Spot
- Stessa Review: Free Landlord Accounting on a Duplex
- The First Duplex Numbers I Ever Ran (and What the Spreadsheet Couldn’t See)
- The Spreadsheet Behind My First Property, Free to Download
- TurboTenant Review: Is the Free Plan Enough?
- Using a VA Loan on a Duplex or Fourplex: The Rules That Actually Matter
- What a $160,000, $200,000, and $280,000 Duplex Actually Costs Per Month
- What I Wish Someone Told Me Before My First Rental
- What I Would Do Differently at Today’s Rates: My Duplex, Priced This Week
- What is house hacking? A plain-English guide
- What Sweat Equity Actually Gets You
- What Went Wrong After I Bought the Duplex: the Boiler, the Basement, and Guest Number One
- Why Some Cash-Flowing Deals Are Bad Purchases, and What I Check First
- Zombie Foreclosures Are Highest Where Duplexes Are Cheapest
Personal Finance — all 52 articles
- AI Is Raising What It Costs to Keep a Roof Over Your Head. Here Is How to Get Ahead of It.
- AI-Proof Income: What to Build When Entry-Level Jobs Shrink
- Are REITs Worth It? A House Hacker’s Comparison
- Building First-Generation Wealth When No One Taught You How
- Buying a House in 2026: The Complete First-Timer Guide
- Down Payment Assistance for a Duplex in California
- Emergency Fund Before Investing: How Much Is Enough?
- First-Time Home Buyer Mistakes
- First-Time Home Buyer Programs Explained
- From Homeless to Homeowner: The Five-Year Story
- Gig Work: What Is Your Time Worth?
- House Hacking to Pay Off Debt
- House Hacking Your Way to FIRE
- How I saved a down payment from almost nothing
- How Long Does It Take to Break Even on a House?
- How Much Money Should You Save Before Moving Out?
- How Much Should You Save Before Buying a House? The Full Number
- How to Budget on a Low Income: Housing First
- How to Build Credit From Nothing (So a Lender Will Talk to You)
- How to Buy a House for the First Time
- How to Get Out of Debt on a Low Income
- How to Get Out of Poverty: The Order I Put Things In
- How to Move Out With No Money
- How to Save $10,000 in a Year
- How to Save Money Without a Strict Budget
- How to Start Building Wealth From Nothing
- How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
- Is 2026 a Good Time to Buy a House?
- Is AI Coming for Entry-Level Jobs? What the Data Shows
- Is It Too Late to Buy a House? What the Math Says
- Is Real Estate Investing a Scam?
- Is Rent-to-Own a Good Idea? How It Works and the Risks
- Is Renting a Waste of Money?
- Job Switching Is the Fastest Way to Increase Your Salary
- Moving Out for the First Time: The Full On-Ramp
- Moving Out of Your Parents’ House: The Checklist
- Moving to a New City With No Money
- New Homes Keep Getting Smaller. Here Is How Buyers Come Out Ahead
- Payday Loans: The Loans That Steal Your Money
- Real Estate Investing Without Rich Parents
- Renting vs. Buying a House in 2026
- Scholarships: The Student’s highest-paying job opportunity
- School Debt Trap
- Should I Buy a House or Invest? The Third Option
- Tesla Stock vs a House Hack: What Tesla Has to Return
- The Art of Balancing Debt
- The First Duplex Numbers I Ever Ran (and What the Spreadsheet Couldn’t See)
- Thirteen Months Living in a Van While Working Full Time: What It Was Actually Like
- Trade vs Higher Education
- What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House?
- What I Underestimated (and Overestimated) Buying My First Properties
- Will Home Prices Drop in 2026?
Real Estate Math — all 32 articles
- A Free BiggerPockets Calculator Alternative With No Account and No Report Limit
- Cap Rate, Explained With a Worked Example
- Cash-on-Cash Return, Explained With a Real Example
- Depreciation on a rental, explained without the jargon
- Do you pay taxes on house hacking income?
- Effective housing cost: the one number house hackers should track
- Five Quick-Check Calculators for Sizing Up a Rental
- House Hacking Index 2026: LoopNet’s Best Cities, Re-Scored
- How Much Can You Make House Hacking? My Actual Numbers
- How Much My Tenants Actually Covered: Twelve Months of Rent Against the Mortgage
- How to Analyze a 2-4 Unit Property, Step by Step
- How to Calculate Cash Flow on a Rental Property, Step by Step
- How to Identify a Good Investment Property
- How Wars and Global Events Actually Move Your Mortgage Rate
- Landlord Tax Deductions: What House Hackers Can Write Off
- Own for Less Than You Rent, Part 2: 12 More Metros
- Realtor.com’s Best First-Time Buyer Cities, Run Through Duplex Math
- The 1% Rule in Real Estate: What It Screens For, and Where It Breaks
- The 50% Rule for Rental Properties, Explained With a Worked Example
- The 6-Step Checklist for Running the Numbers on a Rental
- The Best Cities to Buy a Duplex in 2026, Ranked
- The Best Free House Hacking Calculators in 2026
- The Duplex Math, Line by Line
- The Spreadsheet Behind My First Property, Free to Download
- What a $160,000, $200,000, and $280,000 Duplex Actually Costs Per Month
- What I Would Do Differently at Today’s Rates: My Duplex, Priced This Week
- What Is a Good Cash-on-Cash Return?
- What Went Wrong After I Bought the Duplex: the Boiler, the Basement, and Guest Number One
- Why Mortgage Rates Follow the 10-Year Treasury, Not the Fed
- Why New Homes Keep Getting More Expensive
- Why Some Cash-Flowing Deals Are Bad Purchases, and What I Check First
- Why the Housing Bubble Rarely Bursts the Way People Expect
News — all 6 articles
- Adding an ADU After the ROAD Act: What Changed for Owners
- Fed Rate Hike 2026: What It Means for Mortgage Rates and Buyers
- The ROAD Act Investor Ban Covers Duplexes, Not Just Houses
- The ROAD Act Removed the Chassis Rule: What It Means for Manufactured and Tiny Homes
- Why a $100,000 Mortgage Is Hard to Get, and What the ROAD Act Does
- Zombie Foreclosures Are Highest Where Duplexes Are Cheapest
How to Get Out of Debt on a Low Income
How to get out of debt on a low income: size the surplus first, then pick a payoff order. The math on why a $150 payment takes 73 months and $500 takes 14.
House Hacking
Fannie Mae’s 12-Month Landlord Experience Rule for Duplex Buyers
Since January 1, 2024, Fannie Mae only counts duplex rent as income if you have 12 months of landlord experience. Freddie Mac and FHA do not.
Fed Rate Hike 2026: What It Means for Mortgage Rates and Buyers
The Fed raised rates to 3.75% to 4% on Sept. 16, the 10-year Treasury touched 5% and mortgage rates passed 7%. What it means for buyers and house hackers.
Duplex Real Results: Q3 2026
Three months of actual rent and furnished-stay income against the mortgage on my $470,000 duplex, Q3 2026, with the same gap column as the year-one ledger.
Best Rent Collection Apps for Small Landlords
Eight rent collection apps for landlords with 1 to 4 units, compared on price, ACH and card fees, who pays, screening cost and accounting, with a pick per case.
TurboTenant Review: Is the Free Plan Enough?
TurboTenant review for one or two units: what the free plan covers, what Essentials and Pro add, and the $2 ACH, 3.49% card and $55 screening fees tenants pay.
Stessa Review: Free Landlord Accounting on a Duplex
Stessa review for house hackers: what the free plan does, what Manage and Pro add, the rent fees tenants pay, and how it handles an owner-occupied duplex.
Rent Increase Notice to Tenant: Rules, Template, and Math
How much notice a rent increase needs by state, what the letter must say, a free template, and the math I run before raising rent on the tenant next door.
Self-Managing a Rental Property: What It Saves and Costs
Self-managing a rental saves the 8% to 12% a manager takes, plus a month’s rent per new lease. What the job involves on a house hack, from my duplex.
The Vault
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