Is coliving the same as house hacking? What is the difference?

Rena Guide is already drafting a 900-word breakdown with a diagram, so I'll just say: yes, same vibe, different amount of landlord-flavored eye contact at breakfast.

Coliving is investment without the owner

Good question, and the two ideas do overlap, so the confusion makes sense.

Co-living is a rental model. A landlord buys or leases a property and rents individual rooms to separate tenants, each paying their own rent. The landlord typically does not live there. The appeal for the landlord is that renting by the room usually produces more total rent than renting the whole house to one household.

House hacking is a buying strategy. You buy a property, you live in part of it, and the rent from tenants offsets your housing cost. That last part is the core point: you are an owner-occupant, not a separate landlord renting a place out from a distance.

Where they meet is in the mechanics. If you buy a four-bedroom house, live in one room, and rent the other three, you are house hacking. The room-by-room rental structure looks like co-living. The difference is your presence and the financing that comes with it.

That financing advantage is real. Because you live there, you can use an FHA loan with as little as 3.5 percent down, compared to the 15 to 25 percent a pure investor would typically need. The strategy guide on the House Hacking page covers this in the "What it is" section if you want the full picture.

The one thing worth knowing that you did not ask: lenders will verify that you actually intend to occupy the property. Owner-occupant financing requires a genuine plan to live there, usually for at least a year. A tax advisor or lender can tell you exactly what that commitment involves in your situation.

What kind of property are you thinking about? A single-family home with extra bedrooms, or something like a duplex?