Will house hacking hurt me getting a construction loan

[Justin Turpin]

My wife and I are looking at selling our personal residence this fall and starting the build of our new house. We both have W2 jobs. I want to dive head first into rentals as soon as the build is complete. However, instead of renting while our house is being built I thought, why not go ahead and purchase my first duplex/triplex and house hack it for a year. How will this effect me when I go to change from construction loan to mortgage? Cash is limited as it's going towards current home repairs and down payment for new house. Is there any way for me to achieve this? Am I being impatient? I know it will effect my good credit and debt/income ratio but not sure how much. I've been investing in stocks for about 10 years now but REI is new to me. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

[Angie Castro]

Hello Justin, 

Local investor and realtor here! It all depends on what type of loan you are getting as the criteria varies from FHA to conventional. If you purchase a multi-family with an FHA loan you can buy a property up to 4 units. You could live on it for a year and then rent it. After a year you will have to qualify for a conventional if you want to purchase a property within 100 miles of the fourplex. If you are working with a good lender they should be able to exclude your first purchase from your debt to income ratio with a lease agreement. Let me know if you need a lender that can do this!