<prompt> Human: Im in a position to buy a house right now but there is a chance that I may want to move in the somewhat near future. I know the general rule is to not buy a house unless youre sure that youll be living there for a decent amount of time. But I was wondering, if I purchase a house, I was planning on renting out a room. If Im able to rent out a room for at least half or most likely more than half of my housing costs, would that make it worth it to still consider buying something if theres a chance I might not stay there? To clarify, its not a guaranteed thing that I would move, its just a possibility. If that would help to offset some of the loss from potentially moving, what kind of time frame do you think I would need to stay in the house to make it work?I can provide more details if necessary but really Im just asking in a general sense, would this be a good idea?Edit: Thanks everybody for the replies. Plenty to think about.  <response>: This is just my personal experience:I am military so I can get a VA loan no downpayment. I bought a house when I got to my current base for 145k. I have had a roommate for about 2 years and I charge them 600 bucks a month. My mortgage HOA fee utilities comes out to be around 1.2k a month. My roommate effectively is paying for half of all that.The current value of my house is 175K. I have had to pay a one time maintenance fee of around 3.5K because of a hailstorm helped cover the deductible my HOA paid...but I should get this back from my insurance coverage...but have not yet recieved the money...so I will keep this as a cost for nowOVERALL:My house has gained 30K value over roughly 2.5 years. I have made roughly 14.4k in rent over the time I have held the house. Essentially, I have made close to 45K profit from owning the house for 2.5 years.I am 99.9 sure that this whole experience has been a net positive to my net worth. I know between closing feesinsuranceproperty taxesmaintenance that I will be coming out way ahead in the whole deal.I am by no means an expert...but buying a house without the intention of staying in it for 5 years has been great for me...and I will do it again in the future when I PCS. 