Rent keeps going up, and so do home prices. One of the most practical ways to get into your first home in southeastern Connecticut is something investors call house hacking: you buy a 2-, 3- or 4-family, live in one unit, and rent out the others. The rent from your tenants helps cover the mortgage, so your own housing cost drops, sometimes by a lot.

We do this ourselves and help buyers do it all the time. Here's how it actually works, what it costs to get in, and what to watch out for.

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