The exit math on an FHA house hack rarely settles cleanly at the 12 month mark

Take a triplex bought two years earlier at 412k, 3.5 percent down, with the owner occupying the smaller back unit. PITI including mortgage insurance around 3,205. Two rented units at 1,340 and 1,275 leave an owner out of pocket about 590 a month plus repairs, which is often the price of entry into a building at all on that down payment. If the owner's unit would list around 1,400 based on what the other units did on renewal, moving out puts gross rent around 4,015 against a 3,205 payment, before vacancy and deferred maintenance like a roof nobody's addressed since the second winter. The part that rarely resolves cleanly is the mortgage insurance. With 3.5 percent down, MIP generally stays for the life of the loan, and the only way out is refinancing into a conventional loan, which means giving up the original rate and paying closing costs to save maybe 210 a month. Breakeven on that trade often runs past year six, and that's before accounting for the fact that today's rate quote won't hold by the time the refinance actually happens. The alternative many operators take is staying put another year, letting rent increases do the work, and directing the saved cash toward a 5 percent conventional down payment on the next property instead, which keeps the cheap financing intact and simply delays the decision. The real question worth asking is whether the MIP is actually worth solving for, or whether 210 a month, real as it is, amounts to less than the cost of one bad turnover.