buying a second home for retirement 1+ year early

[Chris Taylor]

We are wanting to buy a retirement home as a second home and plan to turn it into our primary residence. We are concerned about leaving it vacant for a year. I recently read that we could rent it (through a property mgmt co. in this case) for up to six months without having to mortgage it as a rental property. We would be putting about 40% down, so I don't think we would have trouble getting the second mortgage. Any advice would be appreciated!