Free Housing

This page will offer ideas on how to get free housing. Just think of how free housing could help your budget. Its not uncommon for individuals and families to spend half of what they make just on their rent or mortgage alone. If they can find ways to reduce their housing costs then they’d be free to use their funds on other necessities.

Different life situations require different housing needs. An individual can get by with much smaller housing than a family of four or more. The ideas that are mentioned on this page will not apply to everyone. Some assistance programs will only be for low-income families, some will only be for ages 55 and older. Yet, hopefully the variety of ideas will provide something for anyone who visits this page. If there is not something on this page that can help you, then learn all you can about real estate and housing programs and perhaps with some knowledge and creativity you’ll be able to come up with something that works. If you do, please let us know.

The modern caveman, Daniel Suelo (he actually lives in a cave) offers an example of one way to live with completely free housing. Yet, his style and philosophy may also be an impractical example for most modern individuals and families. The man who quit money. Suelo’s blog and website.

Government & Non-Profit Housing Assistance Programs

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will have various housing assistance programs. These programs are not always completely free, but they can help. Programs include rental assistance, housing choice voucher program, and FHA-insured loans to buy or rehabilitate housing. See HUD.org and also look for “housing assistance” or “affordable housing” on Google and State and City websites.

The US government also offers assistance to disaster victims, and other programs to foster the development of specific land. For example, you may also be able to get assistance from the US Dept of Agriculture if your goal is to develop rural areas.  The VA will also have benefits for veterans. See all federal government benefits related to housing on Benefits.gov.

Certain State and City Governments might have specific housing assistance programs to develop certain areas of land. For example, some cities and towns offer free land to modern homesteading families. There are multiple towns in Kansas and surrounding states that offer this benefit. If you could combine free land with mortgage-free housing then that could save your budget even more. See Mortgage-Free Housing below.

There are multiple charities and non-profits that will help with housing assistance. Some will actually help with funding, others will help with education and assistance in locating appropriate government-sponsored programs.

Whenever government free housing resources are discovered they’ll be added to the Government Freebies Directory. Whenever Non-Profit housing resources are discovered, they’ll be added to the Charities & Non-Profits Directory. If you know of any resources, please let us know.

Actually Free is not meant to be a platform for political debate. Information is simply provided for those who can use it and benefit from it.

Mortgage-Free Homes

A single-family detached home could cost around $250,000. That may not be in the ballpark of affordability for some people, especially if they have to get a mortgage to pay for it and the monthly mortgage payments are not within their budget. Yet, there are other ways to purchase housing which are so affordable that you might not have to use a loan to purchase them. If you can pay in full then the home would be mortgage-free. This is not actually free since you still have to pay for the home, as well as maintenance and property taxes. But still, housing without a mortgage can save your personal finances. Here are some possible examples of mortgage-free homes:

I’ve seen ads for at least three, completely free manufactured homes on Craigslist. One was a mobile home that was posted on Craigslist in the San Francisco bay area. Another was for a portable home in Sandy, Utah. Another was in Apache Junction, Arizona. These homes were offered for free. However, however the people that received each of them was responsible for getting them off the land where they were located. The portable home in Utah also required that the new location have a foundation. Sometimes when mobile homes are given away they may require rehab, but not always. The moving expense is enough to motivate someone to give it away.

Texas Squatter Claims $330,000 House. He was kicked out after 8 months. Although trespassing is illegal, a squatter can claim rights to property after being there a certain period of time. The laws on this are different in every state.

Free Housing Jobs

Free housing can be provided as a perk or job benefit. This is not actually free, but it can still help with your personal finances. Here are some examples of jobs that come with free housing:

  • Apartment Manager (for Apartment complex, hotel, travel lodge, etc.)
  • Apartment Maintenance (when separate from apartment manager)
  • Grounds manager (when separate from apartment manager)
  • Care taker, House sitter (watch peoples’ homes when they’re gone)
  • Care giver (assist someone in need in their home)
  • Nanny/babysitter
  • Resident Assistant (for students in dorms)
  • Maid, Butler, other servant jobs

Find a job that offers free housing by searching on a job search engine for terms like “free housing”, “free rent”, and “live-in”. Any classified ads website, job search engine, or classifieds in print could have these ads.

Leverage Your Land & Resources To Make It Pay For Itself

There are actually multiple ways that real estate investors get free property. For example a real estate wholesaler would find a property in distress, put it under contract, and assign the contract to another buyer before close of escrow. They get a fee assigning the contract to a new buyer, the seller and buyer pay all the closing costs. The wholesaler had to find the home, they didn’t have to pay anything to make the money. Other investors might buy a home with seller financing and then rent it out for the same price as the monthly mortgage payment. This way the seller provides the financing and, the renter pays for the home, and the investor gets to keep it. There are many ways investors do this, but investors don’t usually live in the homes they purchase, they build up cash flow to the point where their business can pay for the home they want. See Passive Cash Flow Businesses With $0 Startup Fees.

You don’t have to be an investor to leverage property or land. You can leverage your own property or land to make it pay for itself. Here are a few examples.

You could sell ad space on your home front. This is not that common and it would be prohibited in neighborhoods with an HOA. But it has been done before. When this article was initially conceived in 2011 there was company that promoted the idea called “paintmyhouse by Adzookie”. While they are no longer found online, it’s still an idea that a savvy entrepreneur home-owner could pursue. How To Make Extra Money Selling Ad Space.

You could rent a parking space in your drive way or garage. This would be especially effective in areas where parking is limited. It could be on a regular basis or during special events if you happen to live close to an event venue.

You could lease or sublease a room in the house. This works especially well if you have a master bedroom that includes it’s own bathroom and a separate entrance.

You could rent a room or multiple rooms to travelers. This allow for more flexible scheduling than leasing on a monthly or multi-month basis. AirBnB might be a possible resource.

You could rent land. This works especially well if you live on a large plot and you’re not using all your land. You might rent it to a gardener who wants gardening space. Or you might rent it to an RV owner so they can park there.

You could specifically buy a duplex, triplex or fourplex with homeowner financing, live in one unit and rent out the others. In most states, a duplex, triplex and fourplex are still considered residential properties and if you plan to live in one of the units you can potentially get home owner financing for it. Since home owner financing is the type that comes with the lowest mortgage payment, the rent from the other 1-3 units is more likely to cover it and possibly even all maintenance expenses. So you’ll live in one of the units while the renters are paying for the property.

Free Utilities

If you can’t get the property or the housing for free, then perhaps you can still reduce expenses by getting free utilities. There are multiple possibilities for living off the grid or even feeding the grid to get paid for it. The following ideas are theoretical and will depend on the resource that are available, and many of them will have startup costs.

Alternate forms of electricity include solar and wind. An electrical engineer could even build even build a stationary exercising bike that stores energy as the user pushes the pedals. That way the user is getting exercise and saving on electricity. Those who live near a river or stream with running water can get turbine generators that turn with the water current.

There are multiple ways of heating and cooling a home by using plants and geothermal energy.

Water can be collected from nature with condensation devices or by collecting rain water run-off from the roof. One could also dig a well down to the water table and use a pump to provide home plumbing (this could require water treatment to make the water potable)

Again, these are just theories and ideas. They are discussed in more detail on the Free Utilities page.

Actually Free