From living in a van to owning a duplex: I built the free house-hacking calculator I wish I'd had. Price, local rents, 3.5% down, and it shows what you'd actually pay after the other unit's rent. Live on Product Hunt today:
www.producthunt.com/products/van...

Deal of the Week: an active Cleveland listing at $85,500, a 4bd/2ba double. FHA 3.5% down puts the payment near $844/mo; one unit conservatively rents ~$1,050. The full math, condition risks included: https://vantovault.com/blog/deal-of-the-week-1-cleveland-double/

Rochester, NY is one of the metros where duplex math still works: buy a small duplex with an FHA loan, rent out the other side, and you keep about $765 a month compared to renting a one-bedroom. The full 12-metro breakdown: vantovault.com/own-for-less-than-you-rent/

In several of the 12 US metros I analyzed, buying a small duplex with an FHA loan and renting out the other side costs less per month than renting a one-bedroom. Cleveland: roughly $530 a month to own vs $1,150 to rent. The city-by-city math: https://vantovault.com/own-for-less-than-you-rent/

I built a free house hacking calculator: duplex math, vacancy and repair reserves, and your real monthly cost after rent from the other unit. It runs in the browser and doesn't ask for an account or email. https://vantovault.com/tools/calculator/

That story about buying 15 rental units on a $15/hour wage makes the rounds every few months. I wrote about why it's a lottery ticket rather than a strategy, and what it leaves out: https://vantovault.com/blog/that-biggerpockets-15-units-at-15-hour-story-isnt-advice-its-a-lottery-ticket/

Most house-hack content stops at 'your tenant pays your mortgage.' I published the full worksheet: 11 inputs, 6 outputs, including vacancy, repairs, and the numbers that decide whether a deal actually works: https://vantovault.com/blog/the-duplex-math-nobody-shows-you/

Plenty of first-time buyers get family help with the down payment. If that's not on the table for you, here's what getting into real estate looked like for me without inherited money: https://vantovault.com/blog/real-estate-investing-without-rich-parents/

Mortgage rates don't track the Fed's overnight rate — they follow the 10-year Treasury. If you've wondered why a Fed cut doesn't show up in your mortgage quote, this explains what actually moves it: https://vantovault.com/blog/mortgage-rates-treasury-not-the-fed/

Every year someone predicts a housing crash, and most years it doesn't come. I looked at why prices stay stubbornly high, what 2008 actually was, and why waiting for a collapse is a risky plan: https://vantovault.com/blog/why-the-housing-bubble-rarely-bursts/

A $300 emergency can become a $1,200 problem once a payday loan starts rolling over. I've been broke enough to understand the appeal, which is exactly why I wrote this one: https://vantovault.com/blog/payday-loans-the-loans-that-steal-your-money/

What saving for a first house actually looked like for me, starting from almost nothing — including the county first-time-buyer program that covered my down payment: https://vantovault.com/blog/how-i-saved-a-down-payment-from-almost-nothing/

I spent 13 months living in a van. About five years later I bought the duplex I live in now, and the other unit covers most of my housing cost. Here's how it actually happened: https://vantovault.com/blog/from-van-to-duplex-how-it-actually-happened/

BiggerPockets sold "15 units at $15/hr" as proof anyone can do it. Reality: reappraisals he borrowed against, a bank-VP mom, $70k duplexes. "Just start" is real estate's cruelest lie:

vantovault.com/blog/that-bi...

Trade vs Higher Education
I’m an accountant. I have the degree, the years in the field, But having journeyed from living in a van, and the slow climb out, if I had to talk with 18yo me, I might take a different path. It isn't the same on this side of 2000 as it was...
vantovault.com/blog/trade-v...

How much does seeing "World's First Trillionaire" make you not want to work today?

vantovault.com/blog/out-of-...