She became a landlord at 26. Why buying a duplex was 'much more feasible' than a single-family home

Margaret Skiff started looking into buying her first home in 2025 at just 26 years old after her landlord declined to renew her apartment lease. She wasn't intimidated by the prospect of doing it on her own; Skiff says she was inspired by an aunt who had bought a home on her own when she was 26.

"It was never really a question of 'if' I was going to buy a house by myself or not," the now-27-year-old tells CNBC Make It. "[It] was just always really instilled in me that this is something that is going to really set you up for success in the future."

Skiff — who earned around $151,000 in 2025 between her full-time customer experience job and creating content on social media — purchased a duplex in Portland, Maine, in April 2025, just a couple of months before her 27th birthday. She put $57,500 down on the $575,000 property and secured a 30-year fixed mortgage with a 6.625% interest rate.

She's relatively young to be a homeowner. Adults ages 26 to 34 made up just 12% of buyers who purchased homes between July 2023 and June 2024, according to 2024 data from the National Association of Realtors, the most recent available. However, Skiff earns more than many homeowners her age. Recent homebuyers in her age group had a median income of $108,300 in 2023, per NAR.

To be able to afford homeownership in her 20s, Skiff not only saved diligently, but took an alternate route: Rather than buying a single-family home, she purchased a duplex and became a landlord at 26.

After learning that her landlord wouldn't renew her lease, Skiff says she decided it was time to consider purchasing her own property. But finding homes within her $400,000 budget proved somewhat challenging, she says — the median cost for single-family homes in Portland was $572,500 in April 2025, when Skiff was shopping for her home, according to Redfin data.

Skiff found a few options she would be able to afford with a roommate or two and put an offer on the first single-family home she toured, though she was out-bid, she says.

Skiff then turned her attention to multi-family properties.

Multi-family properties tend to be more expensive — the median price for a two-unit property in Portland was $729,000 in 2024, according to a 2025 report from Vitalius Real Estate Group, a brokerage firm based in Portland. But Skiff found a couple of listings in a price range that would allow her to live alone with tenants in a separate unit helping pay her mortgage.

"It was much more feasible for me to actually buy a multi-family home," she says. "I'm able to live alone for right around the same price that I was paying in rent before."

Skiff's monthly mortgage payment on the $575,000 home comes out to $4,000 a month. Her tenants — who have lived in the home for 14 years — pay her $2,000 a month in rent. Skiff pays the difference and aims to put an extra $200 toward her principal each month.

A couple of key factors helped Skiff stash away enough for her down payment. Starting her career in the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 helped her start building her savings, she says.

"I was cooking at home. I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't going out with friends, I wasn't traveling. So I was really able to save up a good nest egg in that first couple years post grad," she says.

In 2023, Skiff took a new job with a $115,000 salary, a significant jump from the $85,000 she earned in her previous role. She also started earning money from posting lifestyle content on social media that year. Additionally, she moved back to Maine from Virginia and lived with her mom for about six months, helping her save on rent.

Despite the boost to her income, Skiff didn't start spending more in tandem, electing to put her content earnings toward her savings instead.

"That really helped grow my savings exponentially because I didn't touch a single penny of that money until I bought my home," she says. "I definitely don't think I would have been able to buy my house at the time that I did without my income from social media."

Now nearly a year into homeownership, Skiff maintains enough in savings to be able to cover the mortgage herself for a few months should her downstairs tenants move out. But Skiff says she plans to continue renting out the unit as long as she's living in the home. Since moving in, she also sublet a bedroom in her unit for a month to help stack some extra savings, and plans to do so again in the future. 

Her current financial goals are working toward gaining enough equity in her home so she can stop paying for private mortgage insurance — a policy lenders typically require if buyers put less than 20% down on a home — and "getting my house into a spot where I feel like it's more complete and done," she says. Right now, she's saving up for a total kitchen renovation.

"That is going to take a lot of money," she says.

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