Do I need to live in the property to house-hack it?

Living in the property is what makes house hacking work financially, since owner-occupant loan programs like FHA offer a lower down payment specifically because you are living in one of the units, not renting the whole property out. Moving out before satisfying the loan's occupancy requirement, typically at least a year, can violate your loan terms. After that period, you can generally move out and rent the unit you occupied while keeping the original financing in place. Joel Boss can walk through the occupancy timeline that applies to a specific loan program.